Over the weekend, I had a look at some year to date domain name sales statistics – courtesy of Ron Jackson at DN Journal.
Whilst I realise that there is a HUGE difference between dot com (total registrations approximately 127 million) and dot com.au (total registrations approximately 2.7 million) – the fact remains that in Australia, dot com.au is king. When I look at the list below, it’s apparent to me that our domain names are very cheap by comparison.
Here’s the “Top Ten” as at 21 August – prices are in $USD.
Some Observations
- .com is king when it comes to high sales prices!
- Cumulative sales total of the top ten domains is $USD7,594,000 – with an average sales price of $USD759,400.
- Great to see a ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain) crack the top 10 – Furniture.co.uk. The Australian equivalent of Furniture.com.au is registered to Freedom Furniture.
- 2 Letter domains are worth their weight in Platinum – 3 Letter domains in Gold!
- I have the domain Jade.com.au – since acquiring it, I have received in excess of ten offers for it (unfortunately none have appealed as yet!).
The Next 10
- Cumulative sales total of these next ten domains is $USD2,389,324 – with an average sales price of $USD238,932.
- Another two 3 Letter domains are in the list – interesting to see who purchased them, and for what purpose. BGA.com and ADA.com .
A Final Observation
For those not aware, auDA, in their wisdom, have decided that the time is right to “grow our market”. This is despite there only being a total of 3,039,000 Aussie domains as at July 2016! How many dot coms are there again? About 127,000,000.
I wonder how the value of Australian domain names will be affected if and when direct registrations are introduced?
Ned O’Meara – 29th August 2016
Disclaimer
“I wonder how the value of Australian domain names will be affected if and when direct registrations are introduced?”
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They’ve already fallen. To take the .co.uk example I don’t know if things really kept falling throughout all the discussion. I think domainers cut back as soon as it is on the cards. Not sure the .co.uk has ever recovered either though.
I think going forward the main issues is people wasting money on .au renewals (as opposed to .com.au seeing a big effect). This is all about charging twice for two near identical products, businesses & domainers lose, Ausregistry & Auda win.
It’s just so crazy that the general Australian business owner doesn’t get how important domain names are? I still think it’s crazy that .au is trying to be introduced, but if auDA want to keep pushing this concept why are they mucking around and why are board members ducking for cover?
They are ducking for cover because AUDA have a scandal on their hands over the vote.
Seems to be a few jumping ship at auDA before the lawsuits start. Both auDA, Ausregistry and Melbourne IT have been spruiking the .com.au is the best name in Australia to register and auDA even auctions off .com.au names years ago making millions of dollars.
It was only a short time ago a board member promoted everywhere people needed to register their .com.au name and if it wad gone no problems contact an aftermarket register to try and get it no problems.
If people invested money to buy a .com.au due to what auDA, AusRegistry, Melbourne IT and others promoted it that it was the best it seems to be odd if people’s investment is harmed by new marketing from these same organisations saying the .au direct extension will be better? !
I think they have opened themselves up to some serious legal risk if they are on the auDA board or not.
The facts are clear .co.uk and .nz and others have failed, registrations and renewals are dropping as people go back to the .com.uk and .co.nz versions etc.
If I was on the board I would be very concerned at the situation some board members have put them in and put auDA in. The conflicts of interest are serious as people’s investments in .com.au have in many cases been substantial often based on what auDA, Ausregistry and supply claimed and promoted previously that .com.au generic domain names where very valuable and worth people buying, investing in and also bidding serious money on at auDA auction anbd of course the aftermarket such as http://www.netfleet.com.au and http://www.drop.com.au …. all somehow linked up and making serious profits.
Best thing auDA can do is make an announcement the proposed .au has been scarrped as new facts came to them to consider ( look at New Zealand’s official body saying direct registrations are dropping off from being renewed etc)
There are millions of net.au’s available if people want them but these bodies pushed the .com.au and the value of it before. If they no go and affect values they are in my opinion at risk of legal problems from those who believed them of the values of the .com.au and then bought accordingly.
p