Morning Folks!!
I remember the days when selling a 6 figure domain name was just a blue sky theory. Then it became reality and then fairly common place.
I remember the days when selling a 7 figure domain name was just a blue sky theory. Then it became reality and then fairly common place.
I remember the days when selling an 8 figure domain was just a blue sky theory. Then it became reality and eventually it will become fairly common place.
I remember the days when selling an 9 figure domain was just a blue sky theory. And that may or may not still be the case. Most likely any 9 figure deal came with a confidentiality clause. And for 9 figures, I wouldn't be talkin' either.
What it is about is the "Headline" and "Sensationalism".
Today, if you want to be noticed, your headline must be attention grabbing. Just like a domain name. Attention grabbing. That's why folks want them in the first place.
This post is really not about a 9 figure domain sale. But please give me a little leeway on this one and I will explain the headline and the reality of a 9 figure domain sale. Just bear with me as I tie these two things together with Hotels.com and LasVegas.com below and maybe you will see what I see. These things are ABSOLUTELY related and it will take me a few more paragraphs to put this picture in perspective.
Look at the lengths businesses go to get noticed. Locally they have folks dressed up in costumes and twirling a sign pimping one retail tax guy or a Dry Cleaners or whoever. Each doing different gyrations to stand out and be noticed. Some of it is even desperate. They may be hours away from the landlord closing down their business. They have to go to great lengths to survive.
In blogging or publishing or even the Evening News, sensational headlines is what brings eyeballs. Now how far you go determines if that comes back to bite you. If you do it too often or are overly misleading folks will get angry. Human nature. You may be angry right now. But I am trying to make a larger point and hope you will allow me a little extra room on this one to drive it home and connect it. Because it is domain related. A domain is the ultimate headline. Your name in lights! Bigger and brighter than anything Times Square could even offer.
I came to the net when there was 6 billion people and only a few million eyeballs and even fewer soapboxes. Today 7 billion and so many of us are on soapboxes for this product or that or this cause or another. The competition is so fierce. Soapboxes getting set up faster than your eyes can even count. Each day many tens of thousands of new faces get on their soap box for the very first time. Nobody is there. They talk to the wind. There is no REASON to be there and if they don't create one it is over before it starts.
Chances are we won't see a PURE 9 digit domain name sale for many years if ever in our lifetimes. Not that there are not some that are worth it.
Looking back, what is the value of a Hotels.com for example? Strip back the entire company. How much is the Hotels.com domain worth? LasVegas.com, what is the domain worth? Domains like these are the benchmark. If there was an auction for these domains today and with what we know or SHOULD know, what is the value of the PURE domain today? Hopefully there will be no arguments by domain investors that they are each worth in excess of $10 Million today without a website. But what would an auction look like given the new-found info? Given the annual costs? Given the competition? Given the size of the market?
The auction will of course never happen, but would Marriott, Hyatt, Westin, Holiday Inn, Hilton, etc finally understand what was TRULY at stake? Would folks that spent millions going after an unprooven gTLD's take a turn and go for the real prize instead?
Knowing what you know now could you not make a case that domains such as these would approach a pure 9 figure domain deal? Maybe you have others that you might substitute. Stamps.com comes to mind. Just generic domains with HUGE and immediate markets.
It's worthy of a discussion. How would the opening bid not be over $10 million and then where does the bidding end?
Food for thought. We can argue and it is all meaningless. But it is what you believe in your heart or what you don't believe.
Rick Schwartz
BG
The gTLDs will fail. Why? .COM is not only synonymous with the internet, it is the internet.
Domenclature.com
Where iare the new gTLD Interlocutors? I have read not less than ten clear, logical, and convincing posts by the domain king himself, including the foregoing. And nothing from the new gTLD people.
I hope they are not waiting for the king to relent. Expect nothing less than convincing, compelling, strong, forceful, powerful, potent, weighty, effective posts, such as this one, everyday!
Altaf
Rick,
You always mentioned in your blog posts Hotels.com as an example the large corporations never understood to hold this domain. They were rich in money not wealthy. All available extensions are taken. Will either those or the new gTlds hold good of any % value ?
UFO
Domains are valuable as an enabler, but not that valuable.
Take an example of the UK’s most visited realestate site.
What is the name of that site?… rightmove.co.uk
Now how much value is ascrible to the domain and how much to its processes and network of users?
You’ll see this over and over again across the net.
A great generic has marginal benefit to recollection and natural traffic. But its not the be all and end all to successful businesses.
Consumers buy products and services that have attributes and features to satisfy needs, they are not buying the wow factor of the domain. Its like the expression, ‘you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink….’
Robin
Big things are going to happen in the next few years. Why? The executive suite is going to have a huge transformation in the next few years as the generation of managers that currently hold the purse strings and make the big decisions, (a generation whom like myself didn’t even go to a high school that had a computer in it), is replaced by a generation that was raised on the internet. All the factors that drive the value of our core assets (domain names)will fall into place due to a generation that understands the power and reach of the internet.
Domenclature.com
A reminder. Tune in today for:
Demystifying Crowdfunding – Slava Rubin – Live on DomainingLive.com
Tue Aug 27, 1pm EDT
http://DomainingLive.com
Harry L Shields
Great post Robin! You definitely get it. My 10 year old granddaughter is on her second laptop and knows more about the Internet than I do. Changes, they are a comin’
JBS
Hotels.com, Cars.com, Apartments.com, Coupons.com, InsuranceQuotes.com – domains such as these seem worth well over $10 Million today – pure domain only. But if they were still undeveloped with a parked page after all these years, how many bidders would have the vision to see what they could (have already on hindsight) become? Since those opportunities are gone anyway though, the real question is this; How many parked or undeveloped domains, with maybe a low seven figure asking price, that fall into a similar category are for sale now? Who else sees the potential on those domains and would be willing to start bidding at $10 million on up? Seriously, are any domains such as these still available for purchase? Can anyone mention any specific domains?
Owen Frager
Am I vindicated for my headlines now? It’s called smart copywriting. According to Ogilvy the headline is the “ticket on the meat”
JBS
Concerts.com, Events.com, Software.com, Gardening.com – any others worth mentioning? If these domains were built out to their full potential, the revenues could obviously be huge. Would we then be talking about how those pure domains alone are “obviously” worth in excess of $10 Million? Are these even in the same league as Hotels.com, or does Hotels.com have an ingredient or two that these others lack?
Ramahn
As the internet more and more becomes THE medium..the more valuable domain names will be. They already sell at 6-7 figures on a weekly basis (those that we KNOW about..how much did Zuck buy internet.org for??…exactly) between people who ‘get it’ and want to succeed/stand out.
So many people still without smart phones/broadband. So many businesses still either don’t get it or try to take short cuts/be cheap. I still hear 1800 numbers repeated 5-6 times during commercials, when a clear .com domain is all the poc info I need to hear (and remember). The internet is still in baby stage in relation to what it will (or has potential to) become.
J
im selling my premium dot.coms for high$$$ aimed toward corporations and people with big $$$ not to a “domainer” who wants a “deal” if we all did this wed be rich but some of you sell out like a crackhead with the title to a 2014 Lamborghini.
J
shut up man. you have never owned anything close to a bad ass generic. you’re the kind of guy that has a b.s domain like freshlettuceburgers.eu as your crown jewel of your dogs–t portfolio. don’t quit your dayjob.
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domain
Lasvegas.com is very valuable no doubt. Hotels.com is worth significantly more i think.
Rick, what’s newyork.com worth in your opinion?
UFO
lol @ J
I’m guessing your post is directed at my comment.
Well, I don’t fall into the boot licking agreeable category. I see things how they are and how I likely think they’ll play out.
While there are category defining domain names, there is not many category defining businesses based on a category defining name.
There are many reasons for this. If you understood the dynamics of business you’d understand why.
J
@ ufo
im just a avg american with great domains. you said , you just said “that You understand the dynamics of business” if that is true you wouldn’t be brushing Cheetos off your your fat belly and smelling cat shit from the litter box next to your diet coke stained 86′ lazy boy. no serious business man would be calling themself “ufo” .
CateTV (@CateTV)
Mea culpa Owen :)