Latest news of the domain name industry

Recent Posts

Typo .com on sale for $94 million

Kevin Murphy, March 1, 2023, Domain Sales

Somebody has listed what they call the “Saudi National Domain” for sale for a laughable $94 million, despite it apparently being a typo.

The domain name in question is saudiarabiya.com, according to a press release that crossed the wires this week.

You’ll notice the addition of a Y to the traditional English spelling/transliteration of Arabia, which is something the release doesn’t shy away from acknowledging.

The would-be seller says it’s “the correct Arabic spelling of ‘Arabia,’ using the letter ‘y.'”, pointing to Arabic TV news channel Al-Arabiya as an example of this spelling.

The problem is, “Saudi Arabiya” doesn’t seem to be an official transliteration of the country’s name, and you’d be hard pressed to find examples of anyone referring to it in that way.

Some European languages do spell the “Arabia” component of the name with a Y, but none appear to call it “Saudi Arabiya”.

The registrant wants to sell the name via Escrow.com, and is offering buyers the chance to lease the name for a year for $4 million before handing over the full asking price.

At $15 million, nfts.com becomes second-biggest domain sale ever

Kevin Murphy, August 3, 2022, Domain Sales

The domain nfts.com has sold for $15 million according to Escrow.com, which facilitated the sale.

The sale means the domain is the second most-expensive ever sold that we know about, beating the 2010 $13 million sex.com deal and trailing 2019’s sale of voice.com.

NFTs are of course “non-fungible tokens”, which something something crypto something something blockchain something something monkeys something something.

The deal was brokered by Domainer.com and GoDaddy, according to an Escrow.com press release.

The buyer has not been named, though he or she apparently has an association with NFT marketplace DigitalArtists.com, and no plans for developing the domain have been revealed.

Voice.com, which was acquired with $30 million of cryptocurrency profits, is currently being used to sell NFTs, though that was not the original plan.

Domainers immune from the lockdown bump?

Kevin Murphy, July 30, 2020, Domain Sales

While the can be little doubt that the domain industry saw a boost in the second quarter due to the impact of coronavirus lockdown mandates, the same may not be true for those playing in the secondary market.

Data out from Escrow.com last night shows the weakest quarter for secondary market sales since the company started publishing its data two years ago, with average prices and overall sales volume down.

The company, which acts as a trusted intermediary for domain transfers, said it processed $55.2 million of sales in Q2, down from $85.8 million in the first quarter.

All of the primary geographical markets saw a decline apart from Hong Kong, with the US suffering the worst dip.

The US obviously has taken the biggest dose of the virus and has little in the way of a social safety net, so it’s perhaps not surprising that buyers are being more cautious with their cash.

The declines fly in the face of data and commentary from the primary market, where registries and registrars have generally been seeing unexpected boosts to sales as lockdown-impacted small businesses rush online.t

It’s tempting to speculate that while the virus has created more customers for domain names, fears over the incoming recessions have made buyers less likely to want to splash out on a premium domain.

Escrow.com said that the median price of a domain name without associated content dropped from $3,000 to $2,500 in the quarter.

Right Of The Dot to offer new gTLD contention auctions with Escrow.com

Kevin Murphy, November 2, 2012, Domain Services

New gTLD consultancy Right Of The Dot has partnered with Escrow.com on a new auction offering designed for new gTLD applicants in contention sets.
The deal, which ROTD said is exclusive, will enable the company to offer trustworthy escrow of funds as part of its auction service.
ROTD is planning three standard types of auction design — sealed-bid, ascending bid and live oral — for when mediation between gTLD applicants fails or is not wanted.
Its fees start at 4% of the winning bid, with the remainder being distributed to losing bidders.
Private auctions are expected in many cases to be the contention resolution method of choice for new gTLD applicants, because the losing bidders get paid when they drop out.
The alternative method laid out in the ICANN Applicant Guidebook would see funds flow instead to ICANN.
ROTD is the consultancy formed last year by well-known domain investors Monte Cahn (formerly of Moniker) and Michael Berkens (author of TheDomains.com).