2. The domain market saw stable growth in Q2 2010. Overall, 11,146 domains changed hands
for a total of 21,568,780 USD. While numbers are slightly down from Q1, overall the first half
year shows a growing domain market, compared with the first half of Q2 2009.
In line with the continuous stability of the domain market, the average sales price has stayed
relatively untouched at 1,935 USD.
This complete study will continue to review trends and changes in the domain market in Q2
2010, as represented by the Sedo Marketplace.
1. Division of Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) Sales
Despite the introduction of new extensions, the .com remains the most popular top-level
domain extension, accounting for more than 46% of all sales on the Sedo marketplace and
74% of all gTLD sales.
Q2 2010 gTLD Sales
3. 2. Division of Top 10 Country Code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) Sales
The .de and .co.uk extensions remain the most popular ccTLDs at Sedo. There was a slight
decrease in the number of .de and .co.uk sales compared with Q1 2010. No longer appearing
in the top ten, the Top Level Domain .be saw significantly less sales while .in is now being sold
more often.
Q2 2010 ccTLD Sales
.de
4% .co.uk
.eu
.es
.nl
.at
.fr
.ch
.us
.in
4. 3. Division of Sales Volume per Quarter
The graph shows the increase in monetary sales volume for each quarter starting with Q1
2009. The last four quarters show how the domain market continues to enjoy consistent sales
as the economy improves.
25,000,000 $
23,177,253
23,014,162
21,568,780
21,495,068
20,000,000 $
17,082,752
15,000,000 $ 14,728,188
10,000,000 $
5,000,000 $
0$
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2
2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010
5. 4. Division of Sales per Quarter
The first two quarters of 2010 mark the highest sales numbers since 2008. In the first two
quarters of 2010 there were 38% more domains sold than in the first two quarters of 2009.
12,000 11,942
11,146
10,070
10,000 9,403 9,928
9,326
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2
0 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010
6. 5. Division of Sales Type
Below is a breakdown of the ways in which domains were sold on the Sedo marketplace in
Q2 2010. Offer-Counteroffer sales remain the most prominent sales type. The increase of
fixed price domain sales has continued in Q2 with 25% of sales on the Sedo marketplace as
compared to 21% in Q1. As a result, selling fixed price domains has become the second most
popular sales type on Sedo’s marketplace, beating out marketplace auctions in both Q1 and
Q2 2010. We expect this trend to continue to grow in the future as buyers, especially first
time buyers, tend to prefer fixed price domains and as more sellers realize the value in listing
their domains with fixed prices.
Offer - Counteroffer
Fixed Price
Marketplace Auctions
Auction Events
Brokerage
External Transfers
7. 6. Number and Price Comparison (gTLDs)
While the average sales prices for .com and .net domains increased, the .org, .info, and .biz ex-
tensions witnessed an average sales price decrease. The average price for .biz domains decre-
ased in comparison to Q1 2010 and Q4 2009. This variance makes sense since there was a one
character .biz auction running in Q4 2009 which led to an increased average sales price for the
quarter. However, even with the decrease in average sales prices, we still consider these results
to be strong across the board, as reflected by the median prices.
Average Average Average Average Average
Sales Price Sales Price Sales Price Sales Price Sales Price
TLD Q2 2009 in $ Q3 2009 in $ Q4 2009 in $ Q1 2010 in $ Q2 2010 in $
.com 1,768 3,301 2,582 2,373 2,401
.net 1,775 1,314 1,467 1,175 1,673
.org 1,016 1,511 2,085 3,376 1,135
.biz 591 566 3,377 1,224 694
.info 592 681 729 877 638
7. Number and Price Comparison (ccTLD)
While the average sales price for .co.uk, .de, .fr and .at extensions have dropped, other ccTLD
extensions like the .es and .eu have seen significant increases in their average sales prices. The
highest decrease was witnessed by .fr, which was predictable, since there was a high six figure
sale in the first quarter which influenced the average price of .fr.
Average Average Average Average Average
Sales Price Sales Price Sales Price Sales Price Sales Price
TLD Q2 2009 in $ Q3 2009 in $ Q4 2009 in $ Q1 2010 in $ Q2 2010 in $
.de 2,556 2,122 3,283 2,283 1,999
.at 897 1,650 1,610 1,693 1,383
.fr 2,227 4,368 5,122 11,382 2,466
.es 1,115 2,161 2,001 1,360 1,725
.co.uk 834 1,329 850 523 909
.eu 1,427 958 1,009 1,436 802
8. 8. Median Sales Prices
As demonstrated in the previous sections, the average sales prices can vary as a result of a few
large figure sales. Therefore, we are including the median sales prices for gtlds, since they tend
to remain more consistent and serve as an indicator of the sales price for the majority of domain
sales sold. Below is a review of the average sales price for gTLDs.
Median Median Median Median Median
Sales Price Sales Price Sales Price Sales Price Sales Price
gTLD Q2 2009 in $ Q3 2009 in $ Q4 2009 in $ Q1 2010 in $ Q2 2010 in $
.com 410 490 437 510 510
.net 520 501 498 521 581
.org 377 496 436 550 530
.biz 272 301 333 537 380
.info 219 291 253 418 402
9. Division of Categories
Sedo’s auto categorization tool has introduced over 2,000 categories within the Sedo
marketplace making it easy for members to access targeted results. Below is a list of the
most popular categories in Q2 2010.
1 Software
2 Regions, Country, Cities
3 Employment
4 Tobacco
5 Religion and Spirituality
6 Domain Industry
7 Humor
8 Hardware
9 Insurance
10 Jewelry
9. 10. Top Sales
Below is a list of the top 20 public domain sales on the Sedo Marketplace.
Interestingly, in the 2nd Quarter we see different TLDs other than .com showing
up in the Top 20, like .co.uk, .me and .tv.
Sedo’s Top 20 Public Domain Sales: Q2 2010
Domain Sale Price
1 Cgm.com 365.000 $
2 Software.de 235.025 €
3 Kredit.com 220.000 €
4 Monalisa.com 200.000 $
5 Bright.com 112.000 $
6 Business.tv 100.999 $
7 027.com 100.000 $
8 Pengyou.com 100.000 $
9 Pengyou.net 100.000 $
10 Gifted.com 94.000 $
11 Gamez.com 77.100 $
12 Chinavision.com 75.000 $
13 Tvs.co.uk 51.000 £
14 Bestonlinecolleges.com 56.000 $
15 Capture.com 53.200 $
16 Crayon.com 50.000 $
17 Videodating.com 50.000 $
18 Knowyouroptions.com 50.000 $
19 Rage.com 49.999 $
20 Join.me 45.000 $
10. 11. Looking Forward
Q2 2010 has kept a steady pace with sales, while also demonstrating the growth of individual
markets. This report should be used as a good indicator of market trends for the second half
of 2010, especially with the growth of ccTLDs and the increase in median prices in many of the
ccTLDs. The .com extension continues to lead the domain market, but we expect the introduc-
tion of new TLDs to impact the industry in Q3 and beyond. Together with the increase in fixed
price domains, we suspect a shift in market trends as new and existing buyers are presented
with a larger variety of domain options and sellers are developing new strategies to accommo-
date buyer demands.