Public domain sales

It is certainly no surprise that the highest public domain sale of 2022 is a short and descriptive .com domain in the English language: call.com sold for $1.6m. What becomes clearly evident in the YoY list of the most expensive domain sales is that end users predominantly act as buyers and use these domains for their branding. For the first time, a new gTLD has made it into the top 10 of the most frequently sold TLDs. The extension .xyz joins the ranks and pushes .co.uk out of the table. What has triggered the hype around .xyz? Due to the lack of alternatives for .com domains, the startup scene in particular has turned to TLDs that are used by pioneers, like .io, .ai and .xyz. After all, the Google parent company also uses .xyz, right? This has lent wings to the increased hype among investors. Nevertheless, caution is advisable before betting everything on .xyz. In the public arena, .xyz has not yet achieved the matching level of popularity and therefore has also not yet gained the user trust associated with TLDs such as .com, net or the relevant ccTLDs.

Top selling TLDs in 2023

Top 10 public domain sales

There are economic problems worldwide and the timing of when they are solved will tell the tale. Forecasting is much more difficult than it has ever been. When will the war in Ukraine end and relieve supply chain issues and shortages? When will interest rate hikes stop? Will crypto bounce back? We don’t know, but unemployment remains very low. The online world remains the safest haven for most businesses, so whatever happens, domains will outperform the overall market.

Ron Jackson Editor & Publisher - DNJournal.com