Domain name aftermarket sales continue to grow at Sedo with $25 million of sales in the second quarter of 2011. Sales increased 13 percent compared to Q1 2011 and four percent year-over-year according to their Q2 2011 Domain Market Study, which reveals domain industry trends based on its marketplace transactions. Notable sales in the quarter included datacenter.com for $352,500 and navidad.com for $100,000, supporting the .COM’s continued strength and relevance. However, domain sales priced at $5,000 and below accounted for 48 per cent market share, proving that there is a wide range of affordable domain choices for both established companies and SMBs looking to extend their brand online. For example, sunburnt.com recently sold for $8,800 and boatoutfitter.com was purchased for only $1,000. Of sales at the other end of the market, one per cent of sales were in the $50,000 and over category. During the three months ending 30 June, 10,600 domains changed hands on Sedo’s Domain Marketplace. Leading with the substantial $2.5 million sale of gambling.com, Q2 2011 represented the strongest quarter the marketplace has seen in over a year, once the record-breaking sale of sex.com from Q4 2010 is factored out. “The significant increase in sales – one of several optimistic benchmarks this quarter -seems to disprove the theory that the announcement of new gTLDs will diminish the value of existing TLDs,” says Jeremiah Johnston, COO and general counsel of Sedo. “The wide range of relevant keyword domain names available to support seasonal and holiday initiatives provides marketers, entrepreneurs and businesses with boundless investment opportunities that are not only affordable but provide the most significant ROI possible.” In addition, the average sale prices of .com domains in Q2 2011 reached $3,114, a 20 per cent increase over Q1 2011. Average .com sales prices for Q2 2011 were also higher than those for every quarter last year, excluding Q4 2010, which saw the record-breaking sale of Sex.com for $13,000,000. Other highlights of Sedo’s Q2 2011 study include: The .COM extension continues to be the most popular TLD, accounting for 52 per cent of all Q2 TLD sales. The .NET extension came in a distant second with 6 per cent of the market share. Overall in Q2 2011, .DE continued to be the most frequently traded ccTLD on the marketplace, accounting for 18 per cent market share, while .co.uk and .EU each accounted for 6 per cent of the market Ten TLDs contributed to at least one per cent of the overall transaction volume of Q2 2011 apart from the above with the remaining TLDs being .ORG (5%), .INFO (3%), .CO (2%) and .NL AND .ES (1% each) The top ccTLDs according to their average price were .ES (with an average sale per domain of $3,540) and .FR ($3,473) with .ES boosted by a confidential record-breaking sale Median sales prices for gTLDs remained fairly consistent quarter over quarter, despite a significant increase in Q2 2011 median sales prices for gTLDs across the board The .CO extension maintains its position as a top TLD, revealing its staying power since its debut on the top TLD list in Q1 2011 and marks it as a valuable contender for investment and as a valid alternative to .COM and other top gTLDs Fixed price sales accounted for 27 percent of all Q2 transactions, putting it in second place as the most popular form of seller-buyer interaction, following offer/counter-offer transactions (41 per cent). Top US sales include gambling.com ($2,500,000), datacenter.com ($352,000) and consolidation.com ($200,000) with the only non-.COM public sale in the top ten being business.co Sedo’s complete Q2 2011 report can be found online at: www.sedo.com/fileadmin/documents/pressdownload/Q2_2011_DomainMarketStudy_US.pdf
