The .me registry will be releasing close to 3,000 premium domains starting October 30, 2019. In a blog post they outlined the process for purchasing these names. From October 30 to December 30, about 3,000 .ME domains, previously available exclusively through our Premium Domain Program, will be offered via Afternic at “buy-now” prices. To register a .ME premium domain you need to:
One character and two-character domains: X.ME Z.ME 8.ME, VR.ME, TV.ME and 4G.MECall-to-action domains such as almost any combination of an English verb and .ME extension: Carry.ME, Improve.ME, Promote.ME, Refresh.ME, Include.ME, and Discover.ME.
Michael was a part owner in the biggest .me sale ever recorded. Meet.me for $450,000.
This is not the first time .Me has orchestrated premium sales or auctions. Mike wrote back in 2009 about a Sedo auction. There was also a NameJet auction. A first name auction in 2010. Here are results from an auction back in November of 2010.
If you look at Namebio all the big sales were 7-10 years ago.
In the past the big terms got 5 figs wholesale, today it is $200. Very similar to .ly.
Yes I agree I think .me which had a lot of action 10 years ago has been one of the extensions affected the most by new gtlds.
Sales via BrandBucket aren’t reported to NameBio. (BrandBucket lists .me domains.)
HAHAHA as if brandbucket is selling ANY MEANINGFUL amount of domains?! Are you being fooled by namepros? There AREN’T many ‘brandables’ selling man! They just want your ‘listing fee’. IF THEY DID REPORT, they would be shooting themselves in the foot – hahaha.
.biz .info .me have all taken a hit, and it makes sense as has .net with the introduction of hundreds of other extension combos how did it not dilute the space.
i concur. the gtlds probably diluted the .me and many other extensions. i had some high 5 figure sales between 2008-2015. ive had a few high 4 figure sales since 2015,including one this year,all to endusers .
I’d say it is is .co and .io that effected it far more than new tlds. Now it is shifting again to .ai. Rebranded cctlds have a 5-10 year lifespan, after that they get dated.
.ai became popular to artificial intelligence startups not because a random reason, but because artificial intelligence became a thing.
Unless artificial intelligence is no longer a thing, I don’t think .ai would become dated.
We go thru this cycle with touch, app, 3d printers, drones, vr, self driving vehicles, ai will come, and go also.
Exactly right Mike, these trends come and go. Few people will want to use .ai in 10 years time. It will be time dated to 2019 and there will be some other “hot” alternative country code to use.
“Few people will want to use .ai in 10 years time.”
Not true as long as artificial intelligence is still in demand.
Don’t you see that there is a reason that artificial intelligence startups use .ai rather than .ly or .tv? You are thinking that they simply choose .ai for no particular reason. That’s definitely illogical.
There won’t be startups marketing themselves on the basis of “ai” in 10 years. It will be old hat by then. It would like like launching a voip or 3D startup today.
A groundless assertion.
@ethan, i agree. AI is only going to get bigger. nearly every fortune 100 company owns the .ai. Even well-funded companies like the ride hailing grab.com purchased grab.ai on sedo for 12500 10 days ago.
If ride hailing companies are buying “ai” domains it is may be a sign that the bubble is at its peak.
Or a sign that it just beginning. If you look at the ai industry growth forecast, and I have. You will see that we are much closer to beginning and no where near close peak.
Early on is when tech domains peak. Do you see “voip” or “B2B” names selling for a lot? Their time was 20 years ago when the area was in its infancy. It doesn’t matter if the area is still growing at 25% per year (see quote below), naming wise it is dead and any startup putting those term in their name looks stale and will struggle to get funding.
“The VoIP market is estimated to hike from USD 20 billion in 2018 to around USD 55 billion by 2025, according to a 2019 Global Market Insights, Inc. report.”
“Overall, the pace seemed to quicken in September. Among the slew of deals, Fiddler raised $10.2 million for explainable AI; OpenSpace raised $14 million for an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that tracks construction projects; Eko raised $20 million for AI heart disease monitoring; AppZen raised $50 million for AI-driven expense reporting; and Kaia raised $8 million to treat chronic pain with AI-guided exercise.” venturebeat
all companies except appzen use .ai names. kaiahealth recently purcased welcome.ai
ludicrous to even suggest ai companies will struggle to get funding with an .ai name.check the m&a activity with the tech giants( (microsoft,google,amazon,fb,intel,salesforce,apple,baidu) acquiring ai startups that have ai products,ai ip and talent. is .com king?of course.but .ai is fine for an ai-centric company.btw,this eko.ai is from singapore not helloeko.com from sweden which upgraded to eko.com
I don’t think you have read what I’m saying, ai is possibly at its peak now. That won’t last. Make hay while the shine shines because eventually it will be like B2B and voip.
.ai might have 1-2 good years left before it ends up in decline like .io, .me, .co.
Saying “one-word .io, .me, .co are becoming unpopular because their sales are declining” is just like saying “one-word .com are becoming unpopular because their sales are declining”.
The number of one-word domains aren’t unlimited. Their sales of course will decline. The same thing happened to one-word .com.
One word .com sales aren’t declining, I’m say sales volumes are rising. 50% of them in the hands of domainers still.
.io/.co/.me very few are in the hands of endusers.
I don’t see one-word .com sales are rising. Could you provide the statistics?
That is funny Ethan, because you claimed 4 posts up that one word .com sales have declined.
I said I don’t think they have declined, and now you’d like me to disprove a claim you have simply made up!
The only stats I have seen for .com show a very strong uptick in domain sales this year, that is for .com generally and not limited to one word .com’s. At the same time .io, .co and new tlds have seen sharp declines is volumes as you know.
Based on my observation, I really don’t see one-word .com sales are rising. I did not make up anything. Is your “one-word .com sales are rising” based on your observation, too?
As for the decline of sales of .io, .co and new tlds you mentioned, I would say 99.9% of the sales are one-word. And that kind of decline is normal, as I said before.
The kind of decline being seen for those extensions (-25% and more per year) is only normal for rebrand country codes and new tlds, because the number of sales is falling. It is not normal in other extensions.
I think you should try using data rather than just making up claims. If you are investing in this stuff it is your money on the line. You can keen thinking up new arguments but that won’t help you get sales.
So what on earth is “one-word .com sales are rising”? A study supported by statistics or a made-up claim (in your sense)?
As I just told you, it was you who said those sales were declining, I said I didn’t think so and that you just made that up from nowhere. Now you are just wasting words, good day to you.
Okay. I apologize for asserting that one-word .com sales are declining. I shouldn’t have summed up that assertion by just basing on a common sense that the number of one-word domains aren’t unlimited.
But I think someone needs to explain to us his assertion that one-word .com sales are rising.