Earlier this morning, Uniregistry published a press release (published below) with its aftermarket domain name sales report from Uniregistry Market for the first 8 months of 2017. While the report doesn’t offer specific details about domain name sales, it offers a general overview of sales on its platform year to date. From what I understand, this aggregated sales data includes domain name sales from Frank Schilling’s Name Administration company as well as the third party sales of Uniregistry Market clients.
You should read the entire press release for more color commentary, but here are the most interesting data points the company shared:
- “it has sold 3617 domains totaling more than 29,000,000 USD in the first 8 months of 2017.”
- “The number of transactions increased by more than 24% over the same time period in 2016”
- “total sales have increased by 13.85% from the 25,000,000 USD sold in the same period prior.”
- “Average sale prices since 2011 have seen steady gains year over year, with 2017 showing some signs of moderation as the average prices dropped marginally for the first time ever to $8,017 USD per domain down from $9,110 USD.”
It was a bit surprising to see that the average sale price on sold domain names declined for the first time since 2011. The average sale price seems to have dropped from $9,110 to $8,017. Despite this 12% shrinkage, I think the average sale price of $8,017 is still higher at Uniregistry Market than on other domain name sale platforms. This is likely attributed to the high quality of domain names listed for sale on Uniregistry Market. That said, there was still a drop in the average sale price, and here’s how the company explained that:
“Dollar volumes moderated during this period, due to continued expansion into exploratory, nontraditional markets such as Generic Top Level Domains (GTLDs) and Country Code Top Level Domain (CCTLD) sales.”
My interpretation of this is that the company sold more ccTLD and new gTLD domain names this year, and those domain names have lower sale prices. As a result, the higher volume of lower sale prices caused the average sale price to drop. In explaining this, it would have been helpful if Uniregistry shared the increased volume of ccTLD and new gTLD sales. For instance, if the volume of these sales increased by 50% over last year, the lower sale price would have been more obvious. If the sales volume increased marginally, the lower average sale price would be more concerning to me.
I am hopeful that the company will release additional data. I believe Uniregistry Market released more sales data to DNJournal last year, and I hope the company does the same thing this year.
Here’s the company’s press release, which offers more insight about its sales and gives a glimpse of its expectations for the future:
Uniregistry Market Announces Record Sales In Its Secondary Market
GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands, Sept. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Uniregistry Market, the world’s leading boutique domain marketplace, announced today that it has sold 3617 domains totaling more than 29,000,000 USD in the first 8 months of 2017.
The number of transactions increased by more than 24% over the same time period in 2016, while total sales have increased by 13.85% from the 25,000,000 USD sold in the same period prior. Technological innovation and sales team improvements in prior periods have shown us the path to increased unit volumes with little overall consequence to net sale prices. Average sale prices since 2011 have seen steady gains year over year, with 2017 showing some signs of moderation as the average prices dropped marginally for the first time ever to $8,017 USD per domain down from $9,110 USD. Dollar volumes moderated during this period, due to continued expansion into exploratory, nontraditional markets such as Generic Top Level Domains (GTLDs) and Country Code Top Level Domain (CCTLD) sales.
“Sales in 2017 have been phenomenal, they have surpassed all of our projections. We are growing and excited as we enter what is traditionally our strongest quarter of the year. Our customer feedback has been very encouraging and they really love our new checkout system, S.S.E. (Secure Simultaneous Exchange), as well as our new Uniregistry App. As we refine our products and release a large segment of new technology in 2018, I’m excited to see the continued gains our sales team can achieve,” said Jeffrey Gabriel, Uniregistry’s Vice President of Sales. Uniregistry co-ordinates more than 40 full time brokerage staff on 4 continents.
Outlook for 2017 and beyond:
Consumer and investor interest in domains names remains strong. In markets such as Asia (+23.25%), and Europe (+12.1%) we have seen strong growth. With global coverage, Uniregistry is in an excellent position to continue providing industry leading transaction volume and sale prices. Uniregistry has the ability to sell domains for our customers wherever they are in the world at any time with our industry leading application for iOS and Android. “I am a sales and marketing focused individual and leader, and I have an immense respect for our sales team. At the same time I want to recognize our software and product engineering team, which drives us forward. Our product is what got us here and what continues to lift us forward. Uniregistry Market is a confluence of our collective force-of-will combined with outstanding sales leadership, a hand chosen team of proven brokers and beautiful technology. We don’t settle or compromise for mediocrity and that shows in our hiring decisions, product direction and sales numbers,” reflected Frank Schilling, Uniregistry’s founder and CEO.
About Uniregistry:
Uniregistry Market is a part of the Uniregistry.com registrar, one of the largest domain name registrars in the World. We are an industry leading domain Marketplace and a proprietary customer relationship management system used by thousands of private domain owners Worldwide. Our brokerage, Uniregistry has closed nearly 200 million dollars in domain sales, and tens of thousands of transactions since inception.
Most of those are schilling, and chernoff sales