discuss What is happening to domaining? Is it in crisis?

[infosec3]

This is an observation based on the low activity I see in the domain forums and other venues. For instance, lately, I have visited other domain forums and there are instances where you can see zero or only a handful of registered members connected. Even here on NamePros, the level of activity seems to have decreased.

On Clubhouse, for example, there used to be a lot of activity, with auctions where participants could count on at least a few sales per week (wholesale price).

But that is no longer the case. I know the economic crisis has deeply impacted the business, of course, but I ask myself if there are many domain investors who have given up and moved on? What do you think?

 

[SixFigures.ltd]

Is Clubhouse still alive? Didn't heard about it since pandemic panic times, ha.
It's also summer in most economical active places now, vacation time for many others, keep it in mind.

 

[johnn]

Too many crap names listing on forums so there is not much activities but the sale is still going from market places from quality names.
New members spent a couple of dollars to resister nonsense name expecting to make a fortune.
The sale is still going good with good names - not here or any forum.

 

[DigiNames]

Domaining is alive and well. Clubhouse was a trend that came and went. People are still investing as evident by the expired auction prices, and sales of good names are strong.

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

Maybe they got better things to do and keep their business to them/our selves
This invisible up/down vote is hurting da pros too.
Namepros was a place to socialize but looking at people I follow, some havent been on 5-6 years.
Forums are for grade 1-4
I am working on getting my grade 10

 

[professionalist]

It is a crisis.
High quality names would not sell for small amounts. Thats weird.

 

[tonyk2000]

Domaining is well and alive. Speaking about other forums - some were dead long time ago, and/or were acquired. What can one expect? Resurrection? Highly unlikely.

Also, there were a lot of traps in recent years. Some folks invested in new GTLDs nobody needs or wants. Only the most persistent are still around trying to defend their investments.
https://www.namepros.com/threads/explosive-claim-about-xyz-and-swetha.1303659/

Or, an old thread of 2016:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/hu...50-of-expiring-domains-at-godaddy-com.988898/
Many customers were overpaying (knowingly or unknowingly), some participated in that thread but were still overpaying. Again, a lot of thread participants can nowhere be found today in 2023.
So, why did GoDaddy acquire dnacademy recently? What if they need more amateur bidders?

The last but not the least, what can one expect to see (publicly) if the industry is in fact powered by non-disclosure agreements, on many levels? A newcomer (without money) is doomed to fail. A newcomer (with money) will need to survive, mission (almost) impossible nowadays.

 

[karmaco]

The die hards are still at it no doubt but one look at any sales list shows that sales volume and prices across the board are way down compared to other years.

Clubhouse got stale fast because there are very few value added rooms there. The auctioneers got greedy.

The only good one still going is the legal one. Others the same roughly 20 guys saying the same things over and over.

When times are tight people get quiet and yes some do move on to do other things. You aren’t imagining things. We have been in a rough patch. The forums reflect that.

 

[pb]

For instance, lately, I have visited other domain forums and there are instances where you can see zero or only a handful of registered members connected.

Isn't it summer holiday in most places right now?

 

[Samer]

”Correlation does not equivocate to causation.”

 

[evil]

My core business parking is a disaster this year.
Sales are going down.
Prices for new acquisitions are high.
It's a terrible mix: I'm looking for another job!

 

[Kass]

to many crap requesters

 

[BaileyUK]

I think many of us learn not to waste our time anymore. I still visit daily, scan the new threads then I'm out of here. Do I really want to get involved in some nonsensical domain appraisal ?? Or a newcomers request that has repeated a dozen times before. And of course that's only after you've bypassed a few dozen (or more) mind-numbing Sales hypes, reposts.

Thanks but I'd rather spend my time on my own domains. Either that or online shopping my other favourite pastime.

Over the years NamePros has moved from a good domain discussion group, to more of a Newbies first port-of-call, hence most of the posts and replies reflect this. So hardly for the seasoned domainer anymore.

 

[twiki]

As one who is / has been right in the middle of the road between very successful and disaster end of things...

I'd say it ain't a disaster but definitely scary.

- A crisis for the many, business as usual for the few. (Edit: the few = top domainers with high quality names)

- Buyers are pretty careful with monies, especially the small pocket ones. Hence, if you cater to SMB's mostly, you're toast. Translation: if you have low value domains / xxx range, aiming at small businesses, you're probably suffering the most.

- High rollers are still running high - AI and whatnot (high value names, hot niches).

- The sales thread paints a clear picture if you ask me, though some think it doesn't.

Edit: I often get in 24 hours later and be displeased to still see my reported sale being the last one, and ask myself: "What, nobody posted another sale for an day?" - sometimes a couple days too.

Personally, I've always been in profit but it ain't 2020 anymore. Also last year was made up in December which has been a close call. Sometimes I have half a month with no sales, which I'm not accustomed to. Perhaps I should get accustomed.

 

[BaileyUK]

just to add, As for the other boards. Domaining is hardly a New Sport anymore, Sure it is for some. But, can you imagine trying to maintain a business discussion group around the most basic and fundamental of established concepts. Only those that don't get it are going to hang around..

You can't beat DNJounals fortnightly report and it's archives for Sales data. (probably the best tool in the domaining world) revisit some of the older files, you'll be surprised what you missed first time around.

Ps my excuse, Having retired at 50, probably too much time on my hands

 

[phaethon]

I think domainers should not care about the reported sales much, as very few domainers report sales. I had 8K sales over the last three months and reported none. The main focus should be strong names that you would use for your own company and nothing less. Again, there is a reason 99% fail in this business.

 

[Armageddon]

This is an observation based on the low activity I see in the domain forums and other venues. For instance, lately, I have visited other domain forums and there are instances where you can see zero or only a handful of registered members connected. Even here on NamePros, the level of activity seems to have decreased.

On Clubhouse, for example, there used to be a lot of activity, with auctions where participants could count on at least a few sales per week (wholesale price).

But that is no longer the case. I know the economic crisis has deeply impacted the business, of course, but I ask myself if there are many domain investors who have given up and moved on? What do you think?

"What is happening to domaining? Is it in crisis?"

NO! It's just GoDaddy

 

[biggie]

Hi

is the sky falling, again?



imo...

 

[twiki]

How something appears is different... depending on who's looking at it, and where are they looking from.

 

[J.R.]

81% of early-stage startups are facing a failure in 2023

https://www.globest.com/2023/03/01/...nction-event-in-2023/?slreturn=20230606153054

Many domains you'd see listed on DN Journal Top 100 aren't selling because startups are bleeding operations monies. Many companies had successful SEED raises in 2021 and would have bought the EMD dotCom with Series A or B funds.

Same startups haven't raised new funds since 2021 and as the article states; most won't survive 2023.

Domain sales are going to suffer until the macro situation improves.

Also, there were more commercial bankruptcies in the 1st half of 2023 than the entire year for 2022. Or the most in a six-month period since 2011

I wouldn't expect domainers to write public obituaries after blowing their budgets on over-priced wholesale auctions; often with shill bidding running rampant. No, they disappear into insolvency and the strong survive.

Recessions are supposed to wash away weak businesses and investors.

 

[tonyk2000]

Another observation. Many domainers recently switched their landers to afternic BIN pages. By doing so, registrants actually opted to "decreased commission + decreased sales" scheme. Why decreased sales? Because the visitors arrive to godaddy-hosted pages, and godaddy does not allow search engines to index sales pages:

https://www.godaddy.com/robots.txt
it says: Disallow: /forsale/

SE traffic was always important, and still is. So, decreased sales in affected protfolios, at least partially, are the result of this change.

 

[Lox]

Back to normal -before corona

+capital allocation - VCs opens a new arms, branches & investment goes to Africa, EU, Mid-east, Arabia, South Asia

Cross-Border Venture Capital Investments (Download PDF)

 

[twiki]

Another observation. Many domainers recently switched their landers to afternic BIN pages. By doing so, registrants actually opted to "decreased commission + decreased sales" scheme. Why decreased sales? Because the visitors arrive to godaddy-hosted pages, and godaddy does not allow search engines to index sales pages:

https://www.godaddy.com/robots.txt
it says: Disallow: /forsale/

SE traffic was always important, and still is. So, decreased sales in affected protfolios, at least partially, are the result of this change.

I disagree. Tested this thoroughly.

Most domains do not receive noticeable search engine traffic, something that would matter.

Type-ins are key.

 

[tonyk2000]

Most domains do not receive noticeable search engine traffic, something that would matter.

100% agree. In current SE world, one (unfortunately) should not expect to receive any noticeable traffic on lets say "green dog" searches if he has greendog dot something parked/forsale (= not developed). An exception that matters is _exact domain_ search. It happens. Frequently. So frequently that we would be surprised should lets say hugedomains (and they do care about SE) share their google webmaster console stats. Many endusers do arrive to their desired website by typing the address in SE search bar, which is frequently google or bing. Either because they see no difference between search bar and address bar, or because they want to somehow preview the website before typing-in unknown address (did google mark it as dangerous, let me check).
This is how the things should work:

Naturally, in case of GD landers, it does not show "for sale". In the best case, it would show 'We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us.'. Or, in many cases, nothing that leads to gd forsale page would be shown.

 

[magnificentdomains]

I got started during the 2008 - 2010 financial crisis and even then domains were selling fine. In my experience it's an asset class that just stays trucking along likely due to asset utility. I am only speaking to quality dot com portfolios. Alternative extensions may be more subject to market volatility. Today I would say retail is still churning along but domain investor appetite is low. But I think you will find investor appetite on the low end across the board on almost all digital assets. Maybe even all... If someone knows a digital asset class that's popping I would be very curious to know what it is.