No, sorry, not those results. I mean the really interesting results, y’know, the top 100 domain name sales for 2007. I really am in the wrong business. Below are the top 20 domain name sales which represent a cool $28.3M. And whaddaya know? Pornography leads the way.
| Porn.com | $9,500,000 |
| Computer.com | $2,100,000 |
| Seniors.com | $1,800,000 |
| Tandberg.com | $1,500,000 |
| Vista.com | $1,250,000 |
| Scores.com | $1,180,000 |
| Chinese.com | $1,120,008 |
| Guy.com | $1,000,000 |
| Topix.com | $1,000,000 |
| Poker.de | $957,937 |
| Investment.com | $900,000 |
| Melbourne.com | $700,000 |
| Dollars.com | $650,000 |
| Job.at | $590,949 |
| Cardiology.com | $550,000 |
| SheMale.com | $520,000 |
| Rebate.com | $500,000 |
| Rebates.com | $500,000 |
| Invention.com | $500,000 |
| AZ.com | $500,000 |
| LI.com | $500,000 |
| Greenhouse.com | $500,000 |
You can see the top 100 at DN Journal, which I assume is a depressing peek at the future.
Apparently despite what the search engine sites would have us believe, many of us start our web research tasks by typing the subject we’re looking for – followed by a “.com” – into the address box in our browsers, which is why domains like these are selling for these inflated prices. These prices represent revenue that the owner thinks they can retrieve through advertising at that top level domain, even if there’s no content there.
On a similar topic, I learned some new terms last week: Domain Tasting, Kiting and Drop-Catching. The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) released a report last month on A study on the fate of expiring domains and how the Add Grace Period is leveraged to avert domain name investment risks. The report contains a rather curious but colourful diagram of the Life Cycle of a Domain Name developed by ICAAN, but is nonetheless quite interesting. A couple of snippets:
One of the most common means used to identify a name of value in this new marketplace is the Add Grace Period (AGP). During this period, a name can be returned and all fees paid will be refunded for any reason. Often times, domain names that deliver value are those that are intuitive to consumers because they correspond to a famous or well-known brand. Abusive Domain Name Tasting is a practice whereby a relatively small number of registrars and individuals register millions of domain names on a daily basis that often include brands and typographical errors of brands en masse and free of charge by exploiting the 5-day AGP. The term “Domain Kiting” refers to the tasting practice of repeatedly adding and dropping the same domain name every few days in order to avoid the registration fee, while monetizing the traffic by loading the page with recycled pay-per-click (PPC) advertising links. The number of Web sites and the pace of activity severely hinder detection and enforcement efforts by trademark holders and law enforcement officials.
Drop-catching refers to the process whereby a domain that has expired is released again into the pool of available names and is immediately registered by another individual. Typically that party has no knowledge as to whether the name has value. If there is a connection between these practices, one would expect to find a high volume of domain names registered immediately after their expiration date, followed by a return of the domains deemed to be of little value. Those dropped domain names would be picked up by other registrants, tested, and perhaps dropped again. Through this process, the original set of expired domain names would be whittled down into two groups; those that would remain registered and are slated for use and those that have proved to be of little value and have been discarded. Eventually, the percentage of registrations of newly expired domain names would taper off.
The report results are startling: 100% of dot.com domain names that were released (i.e. not renewed) were registered again within the study time period, often multiple times; the same percentage was seen for dot.net. So, when is your domain up for renewal?
See the full report: cadna-white-paper-drop-catching.pdf
