A single domain name under .Games for $183,000 — Rightside sold
It’s a big sale. Is it the biggest?
On Rightside’s investor conference call yesterday, CEO Taryn Naidu disclosed that the firm sold a domain under .Games for $183,000 earlier this month. Naidu believes it is the highest price paid for a single domain in a fresh TLD.
Is it the highest? It’s hard to say.
Fresh TLD firms have disclosed lots of sizable sales, but it can be difficult to compare sales…much the same way it is to compare domain name registrations given some registry’s pricing and promotions.
For example, today Radix disclosed that it sold Magazine.store to publisher Merideth (Better Homes and Gardens, All Recipes and regarding 300 other publications) for $250,000. But was that a cash deal? All upfront? I asked Radix for clarification, and the firm stated that “Some part of the cash component was discounted against the active usage of the domain and the placement that Meredith has given .store on the website.” So in other words, it wasn’t a $250,000 cash sale.
On DNW Podcast #102, GMO Registry CEO Hiro Tsukahara disclosed that beauty.shop and sex.shop each sold for “less than half a million dollars.” That covers a wide range, and it’s worth pointing out that both of these domain names still show GMO as the registrant. Sex.shop resolves to a site suggesting the domain is for sale and perhaps connecting the buyer to Beauty.shop.
Other registries are financing sales and it’s possible the buyers will not complete payments.
I’m not trying to sneeze at Rightside’s .Games sale. That’s a nice sale. I’m just trying to point out that it can be difficult to rank sales of second level domains sold by the registries.
