Subscribe

New Domain Name Study: China More Advanced

0

Sedo shared the results of a study it conducted to gauge awareness about the new gTLD domain names by people in several countries. Sedo published the results of its “International TLD Awareness Report” on its website (pdf), and I thought I would share some of the key themes from the study that were published and shared with me this morning.

Keep in mind that this was a broad study, but it wasn’t huge, as it “queried more than 1,150 individuals from the United States, United Kingdom, China and Germany.” I don’t know if the study was conducted by a third party company, nor do I know if these participants were pre-qualified in any way (ie domain name owners or general Internet users for example).

U.S. Key Themes

PR: DataCenter.com Sold for $500k

According to a press release this morning  on Yahoo Finance, “XBT Holding Limited announced the acquisition of the datacenter.com domain name, for the reported amount of $500,000.” It appears that the registrant information for the domain name changed in the middle of May from a Tortola company to its current registrant.

If the DataCenter.com domain name sounds familiar to you, perhaps that is because it sold for $352,500 in Sedo’s Great Domains held in May of 2011. XBT also reportedly acquired the Servers.com domain name for $300,000 at an auction last year. It does not appear that Servers.com has launched yet based on the landing page I currently see, but you can sign up to receive updates when the brand launches.

Acquiring DataCenter.com is a good example of a company paying a fair price for an excellent domain name that will help grow and expand its core business.

Dave Evanson Reports 6 Figure Sale of VitaminC.com

 

Sedo broker Dave Evanson reported the sale of the VitaminC.com domain name at a price of $104,000 via his Twitter account. The Whois registration information is currently private, so I am not sure if the domain name has already been transferred to the buyer. I spoke with Dave on the phone a moment ago, and he was unable to provide information about the buyer or seller.

VitaminC.com had been

Know Your Asking Prices

There are many ways a person can inquire about a domain name. I have found that many buyers visit the landing page and inquire directly after seeing a “for sale” message on the page. Many people also have success selling domain names via marketplaces such as Afternic and Sedo. When you quote a price, be mindful of the buy it now prices you’ve set elsewhere.

Buy it now pricing is encouraged at domain marketplaces. It makes it easier for a buyer to complete a purchase, and it is faster for all parties. It probably makes buyers more comfortable knowing that the price is set and it is not going to increase based on who they are (how much money they have). One issue I face on occasion is when I quote a price on a direct inquiry that differs from the buy it now price elsewhere.

I don’t have a great pricing system. I have started to put

FlashCards.com Sells for $250,000 via Sedo

According to a tweet this morning (embedded above), Sedo broker Dave Evanson  has brokered the sale of FlashCards.com for $250,000.  FlashCards.com has been registered under privacy protection at Fabulous since 2009, so I am unable to share information about the buyer or the seller. I will attempt to reach out to the company that owned the name back in 2009 to see if they were the sellers and if they can provide any details.

I reached out to Dave Evanson to see if he could share any additional information about the sale, and he was unable to do so. He  let me know that the buyer is an end user buyer, so I would assume this domain name will be used at some point in the future. As of this morning, the domain name is still parked, but perhaps the usage of the domain name will shed light on who bought it.

$250,000 seems like an excellent price for this domain name. In February of 2009, Ron Jackson

.Club Explains Landrush in Infographic

3

If you’re like me, you may have been a bit confused when you first heard about what a “domain landrush” is. I have to assume that most people in the general public don’t have any idea what a domain landrush is, and I think domain registrars could probably do a better job explaining what the term means. For example, it doesn’t seem like registrars are using the “landrush” terminology in favor of calling it “pre-registration.”

For those of you who still don’t know what a domain landrush is, I want to share this infographic from the .Club Registry that explains how the domain landrush process works. Some new gTLD extensions will run landrush in a different way, especially as it relates to running auctions for domain names that have more than one applicant (.Club is working with Sedo to run these private auctions).

The .Club landrush concludes on May 1, when .Club domain names become available to hand register on a first come, first served basis.

5kCP7