Staying on top of changing trends is crucial for domain investors. So far, 2021 has been a strange year that has some surprising and sudden changes that will force a close study of the next few years worth of data to see what’s a new trend, what’s a one-year anomaly, and to adjust selling strategies accordingly.
Here’s what we will cover in this analysis:
- Raw data of top brandable domains (358 domains in total)
- Major insights from analysis
- Takeaways for domain investors
Let’s get into it!
Raw Data of Brandable Domain Sales
4 Major Insights From Top Domain Sales
The data from 2021 is shaping up to make it a year where major shake-ups are occurring in the brandable domain markets. While this can seem chaotic at first glance, concentrating on the data can allow us to glean insights into what’s happening and react to moving markets accordingly.
So how do we analyze the data?
We obtained the top sales data from the Namebio database. We then analyzed the data in Microsoft Excel to extract insights.
Let’s dive into 2021’s numbers!
1. Marketplace with Highest Sales Numbers ($)
Sedo was not only unseated from the number one spot but was thoroughly beat out by not only one but two other marketplaces when it came to top-selling revenue numbers. This was definitely a surprise.
GoDaddy’s emergence as the top marketplace is less of a surprise. They showed strong growth over the past several years so if a marketplace was going to surpass Sedo, it was likely to be them.
NameJet also suddenly surging to the second-highest revenue numbers was a huge surprise after years in third or even further back.
DropCatch is right behind Sedo and then it’s a long drop-off to Flippa and Uniregistry bringing up the end.
2. Marketplace with Most Volume of Sales
The volume of sales shows GoDaddy as the new top marketplace of choice when it comes to selling top brandable domains. NameJet came in second, but although Sedo came in third in revenue they were fourth in volume of sales.
This shows the average sale on Sedo was larger than on DropCatch, but DropCatch successfully surged ahead when it came to the number of big sales. Does this indicate a one-year anomaly or is Sedo rapidly going the way of Uniregistry?
This will be a very important metric to keep track of in 2022 and beyond.
3. Number of Words in Top Branded Domains
Two-word domains are once again the most popular option when it comes to top branded domains, accounting for 179 of all sales. One-word domains were right behind with 169 sales.
Three-word domain names came in a very distant third and there was exactly one four-word domain name and five-word domain to make the list.
Once again, short brandable domains are clearly the preference for VC-backed startups.
4. How Many Characters in Top Domains?
5-character domain names were the most popular in 2021. The sweet range was four to nine characters in length, with the normal drop-off once the names hit double-digit characters in length.
This continues to strongly reinforce the idea that shorter is better when it comes to brandable domain names.
Final Takeaways for Domain Investors
There were certainly some surprises with the 2021 numbers. Whether these are one-year anomalies or the beginnings of new trends will be important to watch to make sure we’re selling domains with the best chance of a big payday from the best marketplaces to find them.
- GoDaddy and NameJet both surged among preferred marketplaces while Sedo plummeted
- Two-word domains continue to be the most likely to be a top brandable domain with one-word domains right behind
- Sub-ten character domains have the best chances of being in very high demand
The marketplace shift was the largest piece of news from 2021. Watching to see how the popularity of each marketplace plays out will be important to get the most out of each domain name sale to up and coming startups.
