2015 Domain Name Sales Roaring

The Chinese are taking over!

Xvideos/Xnxx bought porno.com. They've got money to burn.

Yeah but porno.com was highly under-priced IMHO so that was actually a good deal for them.

So it's not really about burning cash as much as it is, snapping up a good deal when they find out.

I can't remember what the guy was asking for but if I recall it was vastly under priced.

It sold for $8,888,888 (ie almost $9 million USD) - sold by Rick Schwartz (aka The Domain King)

Yes, it may be under priced because of the revenue flowing from it if I recall rightly but I imagine it's not that cheap if you look at the overall state of the industry.

If Private companies are selling them, is it the seller sharing the price with the world? I see the high prices, but usually, the domains lead to a place called nowhere. Auction? Or press release from domain sales sites? Just curious if a river of bullshit runs through the domain biz.

Sources like DNJ put a great deal of effort to ensure veracity. Obviously the vast majority of sales are private but these reported sales figures do not surprise me at all. DNJ often report if they cannot confirm a sale or if there is a correction to a previously announced sale.

For instance, the two letter dot coms. I have absolutely no doubt that they are selling in the multi millions but are not being reported. It doesn't take a genius to work it out since most do not report sales. Our company have offered six figures for 2 letter dot coms a couple times before.

In fact, there are less than 1000 three digit dot coms. There are less than 18500 dot coms of 2 and 3 letters and far less in combinations that would be popular and in demand. However, the entirety of global GDP is now tied to the internet so you're sharing those amongst trillions in market caps, private equity, private capital and so on.

In short, such Domain Names are HIGHLY RARE.

Congrats to Rick

Six figures does not surprise me. The rarity of the 2 letter domain is obvious. Which 2 letter domain is crushing it with cash flow and worth millions? The ones I see usually go nowhere. With the move toward mobile usage, domains would seem less valuable, rather than more. I never trust press releases saying a domain sold for a gazillion bucks, since the press loves bullshit as much as the rest of us do. I believe it happens, but very rarely.

Domain names alone don't make money, businesses do and hence it is businesses usually acquire such valuable domain names. Many of the owners of these domains are crushing it with cash flow but not simply because they own a 2 letter domain name.

Are you kidding me? There are no more than 700 (26x26=700) 2 letter dot coms in the world. They're worth what someone is willing to pay for them and in reality, that means AT LEAST Millions.

However, there are certainly a few owned by businesses which are worth Multiple Billions today:

QQ.com - One of most used messaging and email services in the world, owned by Tencent with $200 billion market cap (earlier).

MI.com - Chinese smartphone company which was valued at $60 billion most recently and is going to IPO shortly.

JD.com - Chinese e-commerce company operating a bit like Alibaba, which has a $40 billion market cap as of today.

VK.com - Russia's big social network. I don't know the value but the underlying business is certainly worth billions.

SC.com - A large, well known British multi-national Bank, around $18 billion market cap I believe.

PG.com - Proctor & Gamble big multi-national worth over $200 billion.

I would say the list is endless, if I didn't know for sure that it wont be more than 700 ...

You can believe whatever you like but I can tell you categorically that such sales happen VASTLY more frequently than will ever be reported simply because Domain Name sales are mostly private and companies often insist on NDAs. In fact, such reported big ticket sales probably represent considerably less than 5% of the total volume.

It was only last year some of the biggest Chinese CEOs were arguing over who had paid the most for a domain name:

MI.com Changes Hands for $3.6 Million in the Biggest Domain Sale Reported So Farha This Year

too bad i don't own any of those