[news release] According to a report issued by Hudson Crossing
Advisory, a strategic advisory firm specializing in venture capital,
the secondary domain name market, toll free numbers and the internet
industry, very few domain names other than .com command 6 and 7 figure
sale prices on the secondary market.
The internet blossomed in the mid-1990’s with the almighty .com
registry. All of the world’s most popular sites ended up being in .com
primarily because the .com registry was the building foundation to the
internet world. Throughout the last decade other registries such as
.net and .org have tried to make it big, but could never come close to
.com while it has been the more favored ending for most of our favorite
words such as Jobs.com, Dictionary.com, Answers.com, Sex.com, Date.com,
YellowPages.com, Hotels.com, Travel.com and others.
“While the .com version of these very popular words have already
dominated their specific market, why would anyone pay a premium for the
same popular keywords in .net or even .ws or any other of the TLD’s
that are available,” states Kirk Bradshaw, owner of Bradshaw
consulting. “Registries like .net, .pro, .ws, .aero, .mobi, and many
others are just plain meaningless. They simply have 0 meaning. Dot com
domain names will always bare the most fruit simply because they were
the first to do it.”
The study shows that very few domain registries actually have any meaning whatsoever such as:
.jobs , .museum , .travel , .asia , .info , .name
As the .com domain name rush has ended with most, if not all, keywords
being taken, investors and internet entrepreneurs are looking to other
registries that could provide valuable real estate for much less. The
survey showed that 7 domain registries out of hundreds worldwide
actually have a real meaning in the English language. Out of these 7
registries that represent 7 different keywords used in everyday life,
only 4 had value as far as significant sales in the marketplace. Those
are:
.travel - Registrar by Trailliance Corporation. The online
travel industry in the United States was $66 billion in 2007, Canada is
estimated to be $11 billion in 2009, UK was $5 billion in 2005, and
Australia was $780 million in 2005.
.tv - Registrar by Verisign Corporation. The television and
online media industries in the United States were over $78 billion in
2006, Canada was $22 billion, UK was $48 billion in 2007, and Australia
was $6 billion in 2007.
.jobs - Registrar by Employ Media, LLC. The online job search
industry is estimated to be $200 to $400 million across all 4 English
speaking countries.
.museum - Registrar by Museum Domain Management Association.
Museum advertising is very minimal and not much public information
could be found. Estimates are $25 million to $100 million in all 4
English speaking countries.
With each having their own registration rules and requirements, most individuals cannot register the following domains unless:
.jobs - Verification of corporation required. The registrar
requires the user to provide evidence that the domain will be used for
job search related content.
.museum - These domains are only sold to official museums and
museum employees. Evidence must be submitted along with pictures of the
museum. Obtaining a .museum domain name is highly unlikely if user is
not a licensed physical museum.
The 2 remaining domain names, .tv and .travel, carry far more value
than other TLD’s in that each is a commonly used word in the English
language. In particular, .travel carries even more perceived value
considering “travel” is a word used all across the world, even by
non-English speaking natives. The online comparison travel industry is
as big as online comparison shopping. Furthermore, the world’s official
domain registry for travel uses the actual word “travel” as its
extension. Some cities, states, and countries around the world are
early adopters of .travel and continuously advertise it as their
official homepage in the United States marketplace such as:
LasVegas.travel, Utah.travel, Canada.travel, Greece.travel, and many
others.
Recent acquisitions such as www.Answers.travel for an unconfirmed
reported price of $3.3 million could be the initial signs of this young
registry. The .travel registry launched in 2005 and only sold .travel
domains to verified travel industry professionals. In 2008, the .travel
registry opened the doors to the public and allowed non-travel industry
professionals to buy as well. With the .com market at its saturation
point, this opens the investment opportunity to specific domain names
such as .travel that provide valuable intellectual property. As the
largest e-commerce category on the net, the .travel opportunity is
staggering and far surpasses .jobs, .tv, .net, .biz, .aero, .mobi,
.pro, .ws and other TLD’s.
According to John Marshall of Travel Domain Partners, “I asked my
15-year-old daughter what service she thought Answers.pro,
Answers.aero, Answers.ws and several others provided, she paused and
perplexedly gave multiple unrelated responses. When asked what
Answers.travel provided, she immediately responded, ‘a site that
answers your travel questions or travel answers’.” Moreover, “travel
answers” is a highly searched term on Google. Consequently,
Answers.travel appears as the 3rd result from the top simply because
“travel” is recognized as a word on the major search engines and not
just a domain ending. Marshall goes on further to say, “The right
single, concise, short word like Answers or Compare or even Shop put in
front of .travel would be a very expensive and worthwhile piece of real
estate.”
Early adopters of anything usually pay the least and get the most
criticism. Most thought buying an acre of land in desert Las Vegas 25
years ago for $10,000 an acre was a waste of money and time. An average
acre of land now in Las Vegas is $1.5 million. Buying .tv and in
particular .travel domain names now is no different, as .travel is an
undeveloped oasis of opportunity. We feel these two registries are gems
in the rough that have been overlooked in the marketplace. Select
single, short, concise words on either of the registries are highly
valued.
Domain investors and internet entrepreneurs are urged to do their own
research. Registries that use a short concise word as their domain
ending will be worth far more than meaningless ones. Eventually,
registries that represent significant industries like: .sex , .porn ,
.shop , .movie , .cars , .money , and others may come to market in the
future in which their domain ending is a real word in the English
language. Specific single, concise words on these registries will
automatically carry significant perceived value. The first player to do
this for a significant market is .travel. It is anticipated that many
more high level acquisitions will occur in the years to come.
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