Latest news of the domain name industry

Recent Posts

Uniregistry: sales prices down for “first time ever”

Kevin Murphy, September 19, 2017, 10:05:32 (UTC), Domain Sales

Uniregistry today said that it sold $29 million of domain names through its Uniregistry Market platform so far this year.
But the company said that average sales prices dipped for the “first time ever” over the period.
The 3,617 names it sold in the first eight months of the year went for on average $8,017 per domain, compared to $9,110 in the same 2016 period.
Average prices had been steadily rising since 2011, Uniregistry said in a press release. It blamed the reversal on “expansion into exploratory, nontraditional markets” — the mix leaning more towards new gTLDs and ccTLDs, in other words.
On the bright side, the total dollar value of sales were up to $29 million from the $25 million in the comparable period. Transactions were up 24%, the company said.
Eight months is an unusual period to report results for, making me wonder whether today’s statement is in response to some recent bad press, but as a private company I guess Uniregistry can report figures for whatever period it wishes.
The numbers, to reiterate, refer to its Uniregistry Market secondary sales platform, not its own cache of registry-reserved new gTLD domains.

Tagged: , ,

Comments (2)

  1. Mark Thorpe says:

    Down goes Frankzier!

  2. Some opaqueness can help investors with market foresight, but too much opaqueness throttles investment and decreases liquidity. Investors and registrars are still spooked by Uni’s recent unplanned price increases for its own nTLDs. It could help spur investment if Uniregistry Market offered up a little more transparency, which it could do by breaking its sales numbers into at least three categories:
    .COM
    .ccTLDs
    All other extensions
    The big tipping point will come when .COM prices decline – at the same time that aftermarket prices for nTLDs are shown to be experiencing price increases over two consecutive quarters. Uni’s public-data releases, as currently structured, will not allow the domain community to recognize when that tipping point has been reached.
    On the upside, while average sales prices on Uniregistry Market have declined, they still appear to be at least twice as high as what I vaguely remember at least one other aftermarket having reported in the not-too-distant past.
    As a frequent flier on Uniregistry Market, I can vouch for the veracity of their claims about having an efficient, effective, professionally staffed sales organization. Last but not least, Uni’s optional offering of ad-free landing pages reduces the risk of RDNH attempts.

Add Your Comment