The number of reported new gtld sales in 2021 will more than double 2020, it will actually be the highest number of sales in a year ever. However for the first time the average price per sale is below the $2K mark.
More companies, especially those in the Web 3 arena, (Crypto, blockchain, NFT, Defi, Metaverse) are willing to go with a new gtld domain name.
Entrepreneur published a piece last week on startups and domain name choices, now the piece has bias to it as the author Julia Weikel works for Donuts. But Julia does do good work in her writing as far as I am concerned. Those unfamiliar with the domain industry reading Entrepreneur will have no knowledge of an author bias and the article will probably have more of them pondering using a new gtld.
I was talking to Yinan Wang and I mentioned that a potential client was rather crass in discussing his potential domain name choices. A friend of mine suggested I talk to this guy about potential stealth domain acquisitions. The guy starts off with, “We don’t suck the .com dick!!!” He went on to say he was in his twenties and does not care much for what “old heads” have to say. He went on that he was looking for a deal in .com or had no problems using an alt extension.
After he told me what he was looking for and his budget, I told him I would have to pass as I would have an easier time finding an actual real life unicorn.
2015
| Total Sales | 1,362 |
| Dollar Volume | $4.8m |
| Average Price | $3,521 |
2016
| Total Sales | 1,320 |
| Dollar Volume | $4.7m |
| Average Price | $3,587 |
2017
| Total Sales | 1,008 |
| Dollar Volume | $5.2m |
| Average Price | $5,123 |
2018
| Total Sales | 1,496 |
| Dollar Volume | $5.8m |
| Average Price | $3,847 |
2019
| Total Sales | 895 |
| Dollar Volume | $3.5m |
| Average Price | $3,886 |
2020
| Total Sales | 1,051 |
| Dollar Value | $2.3m |
| Average Price | $2,212 |
2021
| Total Sales | 2,274 |
| Dollar Value | $4.4m |
| Average Price | $1,947 |
The star extension of 2021 is most definitely .xyz. The extension has produced 469 of the 2,274 sales. With $1.5m in reported sales .xyz has generated 1/3 of all new gtld domain name sales in 2021. The person of the year has certainly been Swetha from DNGear.com, it is one of the most impressive years on record for a domain investor.
It’s wild to think .xyz had just 14 reported sales in 2019.
It is important for those new to domaining or those who have been around for a few years and never paid any attention to .xyz, to not take risks they cannot afford. .Xyz is very unique in that one person owns such a large majority of one word names and has been having outlier like success in selling them.
Just as you cannot go back in time and replicate what Rick or Frank did, it will be hard to have the same success Swetha has been having in .xyz on a sustained basis. She owns 19,000 names, that is quite a responsibility to maintain a portfolio that large.
Wholesales prices have been going up, you need to focus on what has been selling in .xyz and it’s not all niches.
You also need to be careful of premium renewals in .xyz just like .tv.
.Club also had a solid year with over $700K in sales, led by ETH.club.
All sales data courtesy of Namebio
Note: There are many sales that are unreported each month. We cannot comment on the unknown, so we deal with what’s reported to, and by, reliable sources.
Thank you this is an excellent write-up I thoroughly enjoyed it. enjoy the rest of the weekend
Ngtlds are a lot bigger than most domain investors currently think. And the data most use to analyze them, are worthless.
Very good content regarding the sales of other domain extensions.
The domain name industry remains in it’s infancy and development. With hundreds of new domain extensions in the last few years. Companies have more options than ever before.
Just a few weeks ago MetaNfts.io sold for $30,000. When the original owner was sold it was worthless. Obviously another party felt differently and good for the seller and the buyer.
As that’s all that matters.
Yes! very well written, Thanks Donuts and Ray for continuing to write about New G’s
“descriptive domain endings to authentically represent who they are and what they do”
.com is severly limited on this point at this time of global digital economic expansion
.com is the analog and New G’s are the digital version of domains
I use similar wording “authentically represent” as Julia says, in promoting the New G’s
.com will always be iconic, the first born.
New G’s will continue to be more relevant as the digital economy explodes just like the first .com boom and if your familiar with that boom the now boom could be 10x greater!
It helps that well known companies have increased the use of NewG’s
developers opting in and Radix up on their game –
Very disappointing to still see mainly .com focus from registries
Cheers to all and a happy New decade of domain sales !
This is a fabulous post thank you for the effort.