Who might have expected .club domain names to become the .com contender, on the Chinese market?
Facts
Let’s face it: domain name extensions that generate interest are based on five factors:
- They are a good group or community identifier: they are descriptive;
- They are multilingual;
- They are short;
- They are cheap;
- (They are the singular version of the domain name extension, not the plural one).
Markets and types of Registrants (buyers)
The “club” sign focuses on different businesses and sectors of industry so that, whoever may be related to a club has a reason to buy a domain name ending in “.club:
- It is new;
- If it is not that useful yet but could become in the near future;
- It is cheap so let’s just buy it and see…
- It appeals and is eye catchy; an opportunity to bring novelty to a business.
If traditional businesses related to clubs have started to pay interest in these domain names - and the .CLUB Registry’s domain registration volumes clearly demonstrate that: it is one of the largest new gTLD Registry in volume and probably the first one in terms of sold domain names - a new kind of buyers has clearly been identified: domain name investors.
A contender to .com domain names
It is not new that no three and four letter domain names are no longer available in the “.com” domain name extension. When they are, it is because they often qualify as a value in which to invest: it means that they are available for sale but at a high price. The reason for this? They are short, everyone knows what a “.com” domain name is, and they have been on the market for a long time (so Google probably has started indexing them a long time ago). And, just like in the normal world: an old - and easy to remember - address has value...
These domain names are called “LLL.com” and “LLLL.com” for three and four letter domain names; and “NNN.com” and “NNNN.com” for three and four numbered domain names.
New .club domain names to take the lead
I was recently asked $10.000 for a five letter “.com” domain for a client so I let you imagine the price reached by a four letter domains. When these are no longer affordable, investors look elsewhere and it appears that they are looking towards “.club” domains, here is why.
The .CLUB registry recently published its
October sales report. With its auction website dedicated to the Chinese market, it did not take long for all auctioned one and two letter “.club” domain names to
find a buyer. If the price reached five figures for a one letter domain name, Almost all other domains found a buyer and at a decent price.
What does this mean?
Such sales volume and pricing not only demonstrate an increasing interest in “.club” domain names, they also demonstrate their value: if prices paid today for such Premium domains are high but still decent, it means that they will increase even more in the future and possibly approach those of the “.com” someday. If “.club” domain names were to become the next gold rush, one thing is already for sure: they already are an investment opportunity.
New gTLD Consultant based in Paris. "New gTLD" stands for "new generic Top-Level Domains" from the ICANN new gTLD program. They are new domain name extensions such as ".consulting" (instead of ".com").
Facts
