Morning Folks!!
Clarity for me comes bit by bit and then all at once! I have written about "Domain Stampedes" before. Here is my most famous post about the last stampede.
The last stampede was a clusterf*ck in 2014 when few could see the GTLD mess but it's a much bigger clusterf*ck now that all can see. That post is 5 years old. How did I do? How did you do?
But the stampede I see coming is the one I have been waiting for. Like I say, an overnight success takes 20 years in the making. Domains, .com domains, GREAT and meaningful domains are about to explode! EXPLODE!
The cancer of Social Media and collapse of giants like Sears is breathing life into high profile domains. There could be an avalanche of BIG sales in the next year. Eye popping sales. Record breakers. I want to see the day that Ron Jackson's "Year to date sales" are all 7 figures!
Now while the really good domains will be in demand, the really bad ones are going nowhere but to the drop pile! The canyon between valuable domains and worthless pigeon shit is going to be visible like never before.
You will see many companies upgrade to .com and if you thought GTLD's have been pumping for the last 5 years, just wait to see what desperation looks like over the next 5 years. It's a knee slapper!
I do believe that domains will eventually take their rightful place and their values will be understood. Even at $11 Million, Tesla.com was a bargain!! How much is that over the next 30 years???? NOT MUCH when you make $$$$. It's self paying!! It's FREEEEEEEEE!
The lack of trust and transparency in Social Media is the catalyst for this stampede. Is it better to have 1 million followers or have 1 million people a day come to your site?? That's a question that nobody ever asked them and they have never thought about.
Rick Schwartz
Richard
As always, spot on!
Social media took a big hit this year, FB is on life support and without Instagram it would be worth close to zero. Instagram is what keeps the company relevant but the brand ”Facebook“ is just burned and no one under 40 is using it anymore. 2019 will be the year when advertisers and big companies will leave the platform in droves.
Mika
Well. I hope your right, and I think you are. I only have 1 domain, lol – so it needs to get a good result.
Anyway, very positive and upbeat sentiment is what we need more of the the domaining community – I am very optimistic, too.
Ibrahim Khan
Ready to see this come true. :)
Richard
My prediction is that at least 5 nTLD strings in the Top40 won’t survive 2019.
Credit is getting tight.
Rashed
What is important is not the conclusion , it is the bit by bit process which enables you to come to it .
Love to know more …!
“Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish, and you feed him for life.”
Joey
Give a man a .com and you have given him the opportunity to sustain himself and his family.
Give a man a new gtld and you have burdened him with a worthless and confusing name with which he will continuously leak traffic and will never be able to make a living.
Sigma
Sounds good to me Rick.
Good time for everyone to cull the pigeon shit from our portfolios. I wonder how many nGTLD strings will be eliminated in 2019?
Will be an interesting year for domain speculation…
John
Yes indeed, Sigma. Already dropped about 700-plus now, drop regret rate near 0. Not the first time I’ve done it too.
Sunday
What about CCTLDs such as .de, .co.uk,.uk,.nl,.es,.fr,etc do you think there will any demand for them?.
Casino.ro the extension for Romania sold for 100k USD.
Rick Schwartz
They are fine, but just remember, worth a small fraction of the .com counterpart with much less demand.
Casino.com sold for 55x the Romanian .ro version sold for. And that was in 2003. They left money on the table at $5.5MM! Not bad!! That is one of the few domains worth more than $10 Million.
Rick Schwartz
And it won’t be a stampede.
However demand may go up a bit.
Jay
True so True the majority of my portfolio is .COM then one word premium .TV domains
(A rising .COM tide lifts all premium one word .TV boats.)
Islam Hegazy
Hi Rick, I know you only investing in .com but I would appreciate your opinion – do you think .uk will take over .co.uk extension in the recent years to come?
John
Another great post. Already experiencing the uptick myself.
> “I do believe that domains will eventually take their rightful place and their values will be understood. Even at $11 Million, Tesla.com was a bargain!! How much is that over the next 30 years???? NOT MUCH when you make $$$$. It’s self paying!! It’s FREEEEEEEEE!”
I hope you are right about that. Been calling for it myself for many years too, seemingly almost alone even in the industry. So many “forces” arrayed against, most sadly even within the industry itself. So much serving and drinking the Kool-Aid among insiders including and especially at the top.
World reknown mainstream venues with mainstream “real world” recognition, like Sotheby’s, Christie’s and the like – that is where good domain names belong, and that is where they have always belonged. That is what this industry needs, among other things, and that is what could change the game and benefit everyone both small and great.
https://domaininvesting.com/brent-oxley-lists-valuable-domain-names-in-namescon-auction/#comment-81628
Snoopy
Lol .us? It died several years ago. Most cctlds are not doing well either.
John
Not sure what you mean by $11 million…” Rick is certainly right about what he said about that. $11 million also ridiculously low when you consider how easy it would have been to be given Tesla stock and not just cash.
I wasn’t going to say anything about .us this time, but I almost did. Yes I also believe the time could be imminent for the American public to finally discover .us even exists, which would tend to be a major game changer. And keep this in mind, lest any misrepresent my position: except for rare isolated cases involving specific domain names, it’s not about .us over .com or either/or, but is about both/and. I.e., both .com is still not only just as valuable and more valuable than it’s ever been, plus .us is also finally recognized as the sleeping giant that it is. .com is obviously still “kind” by a thousand miles. Only on a rare case by case basis do ccTLD domain names of any nation rival, match, or sometimes even exceed the throne. Again – only specific individual domain names in specific circumstances – not whole TLD vs. whole ccTLD.
John
Typo: obviously still “king*” …
Snoopy
The problem with .us is is doesn’t have any place or reason to exist. .Com is the country code of the US and it is the world’s strongest, .us will never go anywhere.
John
Snoopy, you do not appear to really know American culture and society as one who has been a part of it. Are you not from the UK? It seems all but obvious you do not live here and did not grow up here. All it EVER would have taken and all it would take to this day for the status quo about .us to change overnight is for those in power to mention it to the American public and begin making some use of it themselves. All it EVER would have taken and would take to this day, for example, is for the American public to see TV commercials for the Army, Navy, AirForce and Marines to end with a display of Army.us, Navy.us, AirForce.us, and Marines.us instead of GoArmy.com, Navy.com, etc.
I remember years ago speaking briefly on the phone about domain names to someone I got set up with domain for her business. As I recall, when she discovered .us even existed during this conversation and I briefly explained what it was, her reaction was a bit excited and she said something like “Ooh, that’s patriotic.” That’s one of the things .us does if people only know that it exists.
Are you familiar with the American classic The Wizard of Oz? It’s as simple as the answer at the end. After all the dangerous adventures all Dorothy ever had to do was click the ruby slippers and say “There’s no place like home.” Virtually no cost, virtually no effort whatsoever. That’s how it has been with .us since day 1 to this very day. Not at the registry level or any expenditure by the registry, but simply a word or two and a few actions at the national level. Obviously they did not want to do that, however. For all intents and purposes the American public still does not even know .us exists, but if the day comes that they ever do, then look out. But quietly, it’s already even if slowly happening.
John
P.S. I’ve also mentioned before how the rest of the world actually DOES know .us exists, and I have the traffic to prove it. Along with some domestic traffic.
Steve
I believe one other factor could enhance the value of good to great domains. People aren’t downloading all the new flavor apps these days. They keep their favorite 7 apps and delete the others. These days I click on go to mobile site rather than mobile app. I don’t need app logos taking up the screen on my mobile. Facebook and other social media have a trust problem The GTLDs were all pump and dump. So maybe we will see creme de la creme domains rise again.
Jose
I see the domain market, which is hoping that this year Namescon 2019 will be better than last year.
If you were in my place and I hope you understand what I write now, invest in (com) expired domains and sell in EU I have several buyers to resell in the US.
If I invest in gTLD is for a simple reason, I invest $1,000 per month and the monthly gross sales with the expired ones give me a good life.
When the gTLDs are the end, the domain market, look for something that is uglier or handsome, so that the speculation cure the end of medication to repair the losses in the bank accounts to do brainstorming.
These are pharmaceutical and medical specialists in diseases and new generic medicines viral marketing that generates a lot of money.
I live online projects, I have an entrepreneurial and innovative research ideology, which I need with my own psychological methods and sales strategy to study and analyze what the user or consumer look for to make her happier every day online.
Happy Day. Jose.
Steve Obrien
Everything indicates 2019 will be a outstanding year for premium .com domain names. I think you are right on the money again Rick. Happy New Year! Steve
Michael Anthony Castello
You are correct Rick. Google, Twitter, Facebook and Amazon all take advantage of the internet and domain names just as any individual can. Investors are looking for stability and there are a class of .com that hold their value better than gold. Smart investors will find their safe harbor in smart portfolios that also include virtual real estate.
Henry
$10 million going corporate rate- Walmart paid that for each of shoes com and art com. Walmart also buying plus size and lingerie domains. On Acquistions tare this fall.
Henry
Cancer of social media? One of your posts above had 126 shares on Facebook.