Sedo.com announced the results of its Q2 2012 Domain Market Study,(pdf) which reveals domain industry trends and changes based on transactions in its marketplace.
During the second quarter, a total of 9,049 domain transactions took place through Sedo, accounting for $17.5 Million in sales.
By comparison in the 1st Q of 2012 there were 10,133 domain transactions totaling $19,641.75 so a decline of around 10% in both the number of transactions and the total price of transactions from Q1 2012 to Q2 2012.
During the first quarter, Buy Now and Offer-Counteroffer accounted for 39% and 34% of transactions, respectively.
In the 2Q of 2012, Buy Now accounted for 42% of all transactions while Offer-Counteroffer accounted for just 31% of total transactions.
“The continued expansion of the SedoMLS network means that more Buy Now names are being sold, which is in turn reflected in a higher average price of $838.”
In Q2 only 15% of transactions at Sedo involved a broker, and 7% of the transactions through the Sedo marketplace where those sold outside of Sedo but for which Sedo acted only as escrow agent.
“Several factors are driving the growth of Buy Now transactions. First of all, buyers are looking for a quick, easy and hassle-free purchasing experience, where the total purchase price is known up front. Sellers are also realizing that Buy Now prices are simply a good strategy – they have no worries over lengthy negotiations, and they sell more names,” said Liesbeth Mack-de Boer, CSO of Sedo. “The second reason for this growth is the expansion of the SedoMLS network, which distributes Buy Now listings across the Web at registrars and other domain service providers. We’re getting premium domains in front of more people than ever before.”
“In the most surprising revelation of the second quarter, .net surpassed .com in average sales price, taking the top spot. The average sales price of a .net domain was $2,470 during the quarter while .com domains averaged $2,107.”
Additional highlights of Sedo’s Q2 2012 Domain Market Study include:
— Prices remained relatively stable in Q2 2012 with a mean (average) sales price of $1,925 and a median price or $595, both falling less than one percentage point from the previous quarter.
— The .net extension became the surprise top gTLD in Q2, with an average price of $2,470, $300 more than the average price for .com names.
— The .com extension accounted for 48% of all domains sold in Q2 2012, an increase of 3% from the previous quarter, .de accounted for 15% of all sales.
— Sales under $500 accounted for 46% of transactions while sales between $501 and $2,500 accounted for 39%, meaning that of all sales on the platform 75% were $2,500 and under. Another 8% of all sales were at $2,500-$5,000, 4% were at $5,000-$10,000, only 3% of domains were priced $10K and above.
–51% of buyers come from the US and Germany, Italy and Australia entered the top 10 most frequent countries of origin for people purchasing domains on the Sedo marketplace, with China and Austria falling off the list.
“Mean, median, and mode sales prices give an overview of the domain market from a variety of perspectives. The mean is the overall average price, while the median gives us an average that factors out especially high- or low-value sales, and the mode shows us the most common sales price for the quarter.
In Q2 2012, the mean (average) sales price was $1,925, holding steady compared with the previous quarter. The median for Q2 2012 remained stable at $595, as did the mode ($500 in Q2). From this data, we can see that the majority of sales still happen in the $500 to $600 range, and the mode price suggests that buyers tend to prefer a round figure when purchasing a name.
As the total number of Buy Now sales increased, so did the mean (average) Buy Now sales price, which was was $838 in Q2 2012.”
Sedo’s complete Q2 2012 Domain Market Study can be found online by clicking here.
“Ave Price Of .Net Exceeds .Com”
probably because they’ve sold only very bad and ugly .COMs names
Any genially good .com offered through sedo or any other marketplace with no reserve or low reserve is a rare desperation sale. There are very few of those around vs how many there were in the past.
New Chinese demand for the best short .coms is a huge wild card also and may completely price out western buyers.
Since only 6% of sales were .NET sales, while 48% were .COM, the sale of hot.net at €56,700 probably had a good hand in helping to push up the average selling price of the remaining smallish group of .NETs.
Great information! Domain market seems steady.
“In the most surprising revelation of the second quarter, .net surpassed .com in average sales price, taking the top spot. The average sales price of a .net domain was $2,470 during the quarter while .com domains averaged $2,107.”
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Apples to oranges. I’m sure the .net’s were 1-worders or killer keywords vs .com’s with 2-3 2nd tier keywords. However, very good to see .net is still going strong.
LOL
Wait…
So the $17.5m (Q2) even includes external escrow as well…?
It’s a race to the bottom…
Aggro
Yes included Escrow transactions
I’m surprised with the .net over .com as well. Maybe it has something to do with the .com’s on the site or an internal push.
I do like the Buy Now because you can sort by price and you are instantly qualifying yourself as a buyer.