Escrow.com notes signs of life in high end of domain aftermarket

There are some “green shoots” in the domain aftermarket.

Escrow.com released its Q4 Domain Investment Index (pdf) today.

Its Q4 2022 was rather dismal, with just $80 million in domain transactions compared to $158 million in Q4 2021.

But there might be light at the end of the tunnel. Q4 was up by $5 million sequentially from Q3. And the firm notes that, following a collapse in “mega” domain deals over $10 million, things are starting to look better.

In a separate market note released with earnings on February 22, the firm stated that February was shaping up to be the best month since at least July of 2022, and it believes Q1 2023 will be better than Q4 2022.

The firm noted that the drop in venture capital funding last year led to a drop in mega transactions. Whereas in the first half of last year, the firm closed “many” domain transactions for $10-$20 million, this dried up in the second half. Still, the firm has by now completed one transaction over $10 million this quarter and has quoted one that would be a number of multiples of its highest transaction ever.

Getting back to the Q4 note, the firm noted the median domain transaction (not counting content websites) was $4,120, down from $4,504 in Q3. You can view a further breakdown of transactions, counting by length, in the full note.