A Big Month for NameJet: October
…And China drove the growth
October was probably NameJet’s best month overall. Remember, the market place set a record in July and then superseded it in September with cumulative sales from auctions over $2k reaching first $1.05 then $1.32 million. Last month ranks third behind those, but it’s just 2% shy of second place. Crucially, whereas the other 2 months each derived more than half their noted revenue from a single sale ($555k then $694k), October’s top auction ($142k) leaves bragging rights to the remaining 138 domains. That’s right: Last month also ranks 2nd for the number of sales – right behind January … but earning 30% more. Yes, 2015 has been kind to NameJet.
It will come as a shock to nobody that much of this buying activity can be attributed to China. How much? Roughly 76 auctions (54.7%) – $704.9k (68.7%) by weight. (The month prior was distributed 51% / 82.3%.) How long this will continue is anybody’s guess. But the Chinese domain market certainly dominates at the moment; so I’ll lead with the asset categories favored by China.
| Domain | End $ | Domain | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 742.com | 142,000 | 1865.com | 41,000 |
| 4976.com | 12,422 | 87155.com | 6122 |
| 98895.com | 6100 | 78766.com | 5956 |
| 88878888.com | 4560 | 666635.com | 4103 |
| 5755.net | 3353 | 599997.com | 3010 |
| 32366.com | 2500 | 58839.com | 2302 |
| 78136.com | 2244 | 288887.com | 2242 |
| 8897.net | 2150 | 53568.com | 2120 |
| 80707.com | 2019 | 6836.net | 2009 |
The best 3-digit .COM domains have been retailing around the $1 million mark during 2015. Next to those, NameJet’s top sale – a $142k NNN.com – is modest potatoes. In all, 18 pure numerical domains + another 6 with the “HG” prefix accounted for $246.2k + $14.5k. Right there, that’s a quarter of NameJet’s sales and 37% of its Chinese-style sales. (Why HG? See this.)
You’ll notice that the pair of 4-digit .COMs differ in value by a factor of more than 3. An unlucky “4” may be the culprit. With so wide a spread, investors had better know what they’re doing! Meanwhile, eight 5-digit .COMs ranged as high as $6.1k but as low as (and probably lower than) $2k. A trio of 4-digit .NETs all sold under $3.4k. And a quartet of 6 and 8-digit .COMs – all with repeating sequences – fell under $4.6k. (We’ve seen them go higher.)
| Domain | End $ | Domain | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| HG466.com | 2930 | HG477.com | 2903 |
| HG3599.com | 2301 | HG3566.com | 2205 |
| HG2366.com | 2204 | HG0026.com | 2000 |
China isn’t all regarding numbers; it’s also quite fond of short letter sequences. These 7 LLL.com’s totaled $227.2k – another quarter of NameJet’s noted revenue and another full third of its Chinese-style sales. It’s significant that more than half of the top 12 sales at NameJet were 3-letter .COMs; and every LLL.com auction placed in that top 10%.
| Domain | End $ | Domain | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| JHG.com | 54,000 | JLM.com | 44,317 |
| MTF.com | 39,900 | GEY.com | 29,377 |
| XUG.com | 21,300 | HWV.com | 20,101 |
| XUH.com | 18,220 |
More than a quarter of Chinese-style domains were 4-letter .COMs; NameJet sold 20 of them. But they amounted to only 10% by price – a mere $70.3k. All LLLL.com’s fell under $10k, all but 1 under $6.7k, and 60% of them under $3k.
| Domain | End $ | Domain | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| AZAR.com | 9200 | GESI.com | 6700 |
| FIRI.com | 6200 | GGGM.com | 4220 |
| AIMM.com | 4100 | DOOS.com | 3553 |
| PCCI.com | 3550 | GGMG.com | 3388 |
| GGSN.com | 2900 | IVON.com | 2900 |
| MRTV.com | 2800 | PSTO.com | 2655 |
| CHRI.com | 2600 | KIAI.com | 2550 |
| OBRO.com | 2500 | CHAB.com | 2200 |
| NEVU.com | 2100 | OIKA.com | 2100 |
| MMLS.com | 2077 | GRCN.com | 2000 |
NameJet sold nearly as many LLL.net domains as it did LLLL.com’s. 14 of them leapt into the $2.0k – $2.7k range. On top of those, a CC.net claimed $5.9k; and let’s not forget NameJet’s #2 sale for the month of October – a 2-letter .NET whose $55k price narrowly beat out all 20 LLL.com’s.
In 1980, American TV viewers were all asking who shot J.R. Well, in 2015, the Chinese buyer of JR.net couldn’t care less regarding some 35-year-old “Dallas” cliff hanger. He may not even know that he bought the abbreviation for “Junior” – just as Western domainers frequently have no idea what their strings of numbers mean (if anything) in Beijing.
| Domain | End $ | Domain | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| JR.net | 55,000 | 9F.net | 5865 |
| FXH.net | 2720 | WGQ.net | 2410 |
| PZG.net | 2320 | DXG.net | 2319 |
| KLB.net | 2319 | ZFK.net | 2200 |
| QNR.net | 2120 | BQB.net | 2100 |
| FQD.net | 2100 | MLR.net | 2040 |
| QRL.net | 2040 | QFR.net | 2033 |
| ZRF.net | 2002 | NMQ.net | 2000 |
China also prizes quality Pinyin domains. I’ve by now written regarding the meaning of the big seller, JinSe.com. It seemed KuangXi.com might apply to Laos, but the buyer is Chinese following all. PengZhan.com may have something to do with a bird spreading its wings (from a proverb), but I’d want confirmation on that from a native Chinese speaker.
| Domain | End $ | Domain | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| JinSe.com | 30,200 | WoWoTou.com | 5334 |
| KuangXi.com | 2100 | PengZhan.com | 2000 |
Last but not least, here are 5 mixed-character .COMs. Many of these will go to China, although that may not apply to the hyphenated K-S.com. NR1 has special significance for me as an ex-submarine officer.
| Domain | End $ | Domain | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| KM8.com | 4088 | K-S.com | 3400 |
| NR1.com | 3000 | 00F.com | 2520 |
| DI2.com | 2410 |
That concludes the portion of this article devoted to China. From here on out, domains will have individual personality. Ahead of we get to .COM, let’s spend a minute on other TLDs.
.NET had a great month, with 22 sales clearing $2k at NameJet. Here the Chinese market was keenly notable. Indeed, just 3 .NET sales belong to the Western hemisphere. With bidders distracted by China, these buyers got great deals. I know that first hand since I sold CloudBackup.net for the same price as Backup.net, and the latter is surely better. Medikamente.net is German for “medication”. Not a modest industry, that.
| Domain | End $ | Domain | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backup.net | 5601 | Gadgets.net | 4705 |
| Medikamente.net | 2535 |
“Gadgets” sold in both .NET and .ORG for effectively the same amount. Interesting that Gadgets.org, which are fun little machines, went for double the price of Machines.org. I suppose that’s since “gadgets” is more likely to refer to the latest consumer electronics, whereas “machines” would tend to be heavy-duty industrial equipment – products with less mass appeal. Apparently UNCJIN stands for the United Nations Crime and Justice Information Network.
| Domain | End $ | Domain | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gadgets.org | 5087 | Machines.org | 2622 |
| UNCJIN.org | 2400 | Liquid.org | 2200 |
| VHF.org | 2050 |
.NET and .ORG aren’t the only “not COMs”, although they are the 2 gTLDs we see most. Actually, this October chart is unusually diverse. 34 out of 139 sales (24.5%) were “not COMs” – a better showing than I’ve ever noted. Granted, 2/3 of those were .NET and mainly due to China. But you’ll also see a terrific .CO, a pair of .ME domains that span the dot, and 5 .TVs. Believe me, I’d note nTLD sales if NameJet had any.
| Domain | End $ | Domain | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact.me | 7601 | JT.tv | 6100 |
| HOT.co | 5100 | FREE.me | 5000 |
| HO.tv | 4800 | NO.tv | 4010 |
| AX.tv | 3500 | England.tv | 3000 |
2 of the 7 English .COMs below aren’t ordinary words; Energist.com and Matchable.com would be more or less invented “brandables”. Unfriend.com wouldn’t be a word either had Facebook not given us the opportunity to conspicuously detach ourselves from people we know but can’t stand. Fertilize.com makes a lot of sense for lawn care. But the best grass here must be Blazed.com, meaning high on pot. Quite a good brand name for the burgeoning recreational marijuana industry.
| Domain | End $ | Domain | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blazed.com | 10,000 | Fertilize.com | 3622 |
| Unfriend.com | 3022 | Energist.com | 2700 |
| Eternally.com | 2500 | Matchable.com | 2223 |
| Walked.com | 2199 |
The next 5 domains are all personal names – except for Anoka.com, which is the name of a city and county in Minnesota. Surnames are often applied to firms or other institutions, and Goldwater.com is no exception. Apart from a law firm with an atrocious domain, there’s also a Goldwater Institute named for Barry Goldwater, who ran for U.S. president unsuccessfully in the 1960s.
| Domain | End $ | Domain | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goldwater.com | 15,100 | Michelsen.com | 4100 |
| LuAnn.com | 3899 | Anoka.com | 3395 |
| Trivedi.com | 2555 |
The next 3 domains each correspond to existing brands. ESPN is a household name; so I’d consider that domain taboo. In contrast, there are a number of banks with names like ValleyBank.com – no single 1 of which can lay sole claim to the domain. MontrealMirror.com sounds like it is or was a newspaper.
| Domain | End $ | Domain | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| ValleyBank.com | 4400 | ESPNStar.com | 3625 |
| MontrealMirror.com | 2090 |
These 2 non-English domains (French and Spanish) are worth highlighting both since of their price and their shared form: “the” + a word.
| Domain | End $ | Domain | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| LeShop.com | 9020 | LaCasa.com | 6317 |
If Stime.com had a second “M”, it would be German for “voice”. Perhaps it’s a typo. But here it leads a table of words with single-letter prefixes. iChem.com I’ve written regarding by now. If you have any information on the others, please share.
| Domain | End $ | Domain | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| STime.com | 4532 | iChem.com | 4488 |
| MBeacon.com | 3000 | UShow.com | 2815 |
| VPorno.com | 2100 |
Finally, what a few of you have been wading through Chinese domains to get to – keyword-rich English .COMs! Unfortunately, by this point you’re too fatigued to read regarding them; and I’m too knackered to write regarding them. Some of these are covered by now in my weekly articles regarding the expired market: for instance, AutoPricing.com or MyTaxReturn.com or ChipIn.com or the Cook-Islands.com.
| Domain | End $ | Domain | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| InternetAccess.com | 32,700 | 3DCasino.com | 16,600 |
| ChipIn.com | 12,119 | Hair Conditioner.com |
12,100 |
| WeekDays.com | 8100 | Price Tracker.com |
7400 |
| IPAttorney.com | 6512 | MSLaw.com | 6112 |
| MindGame.com | 6000 | Online Assistant.com |
5400 |
| StoneHouse.com | 3988 | Laundry Basket.com |
3950 |
| MyTaxReturn.com | 3852 | Strategic Advisors.com |
3656 |
| UltraMedia.com | 3619 | Refinance Mortgages.com |
3600 |
| Cook-Islands.com | 3511 | BeautyNet.com | 2910 |
| OffsiteBackup.com | 2300 | Barbecue Chicken.com |
2277 |
| Tattoo Equipment.com |
2266 | NewWork.com | 2200 |
| CaribbeanSea.com | 2100 | BuyPlants.com | 2020 |
| AutoPricing.com | 2000 |
The next time you shower with HairConditioner.com, eat BarbecueChicken.com, or toss a dirty sock into a LaundryBasket.com, will you see phantom price tags next to each object in your daily life and think back to the domain auction? If such ghosts haunt you, then you’re a domainer.
[Editor: This story originally was headlined “A big month for expired domains”. As author Joseph Peterson points out, many of these sales are non-expired.]
