This morning, Escrow.com released its Domain Investment Index report for the Third Quarter of 2019. Because Escrow.com facilitates a large percentage of private domain name sales, especially those that sell for the highest amounts of money, the company is in an excellent position to offer an overview of the health of the domain name aftermarket and provide a view of what types of domain names are selling and for how much.
Below are some of my key takeaways from the report. Of course, you may download the report pdf and review for yourself.
It appears that Q3 2019 was relatively strong, as compared to Q3 2018:
“In the three months ending September 2019, the total value of domain name transactions facilitated by Escrow.com saw an uplift from the second quarter. As exhibited in Figure 3.0, the total value of domain names transacted on Escrow.com rose to US$69.3 million in Q3 2019, up slightly from US$68.6 million in Q2 2019.”
There was a rally in the China market in Q2, but that appears to be short-lived:
“The United States continued to lead the top 5 regions by total transaction value by a wide margin at $55 million. However, China’s Q2 2019 rally proved short-lived. After hitting $13 million in transaction value in Q2, transaction value in China fell to $4.6 million in Q3 2019, as illustrated in Figure 3.3.”
Longer domain names are rising in value, and 2-3 character domain names are recovering:
“Though 2-3 character domains continue to attract the highest prices, Figures 3.6 through 4.4 show a trend of longer domain names rising in value. After a meteoric rise in Q1 and a steep decline in Q2, 2-3 character .com domains have seen some recovery in Q3 2019. Following a dip after two consecutive strong quarters, 4 character .com domain name median price continued its rise, from US$7000 in Q2 2019 to US$7250 in Q3 2019. Likewise, 5- and 6-character domains also saw a rise in median price.”
These are just a few of the tidbits I chose to highlight, but there is a lot of information to digest. For me, Q3 was not fantastic on the sales side, I had several nice sales, but it seems like my inquiries have been down of late. I have not done any sort of analysis though, so that’s just my feeling. With a relatively small portfolio in the ballpark of 1,000 domain names, what I see does not necessarily indicate anything for the overall market.
quote –
“It appears that Q3 2019 was relatively strong, as compared to Q3 2018”
I believe you meant Q3 2019 compared to Q2 2019.
Looking at the graph at Q3 transactions (graph 3.0), Q3 2018 is number #1. Then, Q3 2017 and last was Q3 2019.
We all know that China sales are down.
The overall numbers are quite weak, a much softer 12 months compared to the 12 months prior. The China market looks to have collapsed.