NNNNN Domains

More 4.cn Auction Results

2012-01-09T09:41:00.000-08:00

Here are more numeric auction results (not necessarily completed sales) from 4.cn, the premier Chinese auction site for numeric domains.

48.com	￥1,480,000	$222,000
6666.com	￥623,000	$93,450
881.com	￥394,000	$59,100
838.com	￥389,888	$58,483
080.com	￥276,000	$41,400
986.com	￥185,001	$27,750
732.com	￥138,000	$20,700
8588.com	￥128,500	$19,275
646.com	￥120,000	$18,000
5525.com	￥84,999	$12,750
804.com	￥70,000	$10,500
0333.com	￥40,500	$6,075
88.la	￥29,999	$4,500
3466.com	￥24,500	$3,675
3880.com	￥16,801	$2,520
5830.com	￥16,700	$2,505
598.net	￥13,222	$1,983
6736.com	￥9,100	$1,365
532.net	￥8,188	$1,228
0215.com	￥8,077	$1,212
0216.com	￥7,877	$1,182
8905.com	￥7,800	$1,170
9218.com	￥7,700	$1,155
8925.com	￥7,500	$1,125
514.cn	￥7,301	$1,095
7603.com	￥7,100	$1,065
487.cn	￥7,100	$1,065
6512.com	￥7,088	$1,063
0075.com	￥7,002	$1,050
019.net	￥7,000	$1,050
7359.com	￥6,800	$1,020
0959.com	￥6,201	$930
7602.com	￥6,088	$913
66668.com	￥5,999	$900
1860.net	￥5,600	$840
6497.com	￥5,400	$810
3847.com	￥5,102	$765
4074.com	￥4,600	$690
5454.cn	￥4,501	$675
2754.com	￥4,401	$660
6493.com	￥4,205	$631
7111.cn	￥3,600	$540
9494.cn	￥3,300	$495
02888.com	￥3,200	$480
22277.com	￥3,149	$472
5554.cn	￥2,600	$390
572.com.cn	￥2,208	$331
2244.net	￥2,200	$330
68899.com	￥2,000	$300
666668.com	￥2,000	$300
69966.com	￥1,950	$293
21666.com	￥1,669	$250
967.com.cn	￥1,500	$225
577.so	￥1,010	$152
6766.net	￥1,000	$150
888883.com	￥920	$138
123777.com	￥821	$123
666668.com	￥741	$111
2340.net	￥720	$108
888880.com	￥720	$108
0656.net	￥660	$99
3568.net	￥561	$84
7577.net	￥522	$78
06606.com	￥520	$78
36388.com	￥520	$78
0078.net	￥460	$69
2058.net	￥440	$66
0306.net	￥360	$54
0960.net	￥360	$54
5950.net	￥360	$54
96018.com	￥340	$51
0622.cn	￥320	$48
5705.net	￥320	$48
5820.net	￥320	$48
0237.net	￥300	$45
5827.net	￥300	$45
01155.com	￥280	$42
4979.net	￥260	$39
2478.net	￥260	$39
17950.com	￥260	$39
553333.com	￥240	$36
85888.cn	￥240	$36
398398.cn	￥220	$33
5454.com.cn	￥220	$33
88370.com	￥220	$33
88222.net	￥220	$33
818919.com	￥200	$30
56383.com	￥200	$30
88-44.com	￥200	$30
083.info	￥200	$30
12691.com	￥200	$30
3333.so	￥200	$30
00552.com	￥200	$30
593593.com	￥160	$24
790790.com	￥130	$20
076076.com	￥110	$17
26664.com	￥110	$17
983983.com	￥100	$15
229977.com	￥100	$15
585585.com	￥100	$15
20302.com	￥90	$14
676676.com	￥80	$12
837837.com	￥80	$12
009966.com	￥80	$12
772233.com	￥70	$11
225511.com	￥60	$9
009977.com	￥60	$9

5 Digit Domains Stop Dropping

2011-12-29T11:12:00.000-08:00

Or at least are dropping much less frequently.

Here is the updated graph showing average daily drops during the past 7 months (with complete numbers for December now).

Graph maker
Average daily drops plummeted in December to 35.8 per day. We were used to seeing regular days with 50-60 NNNNN.com's dropping each day, and now those days are exceedingly rare. Interestingly, the number of NNNNN.com's dropping appears to now be consistently lower than or equal to the daily drops of LLLL.com's (four letter domains). Between now and January 1st, for example, 170 five digit domains will drop, while 177 four letter domains will drop.

More numerics auction results from 4.cn

2011-12-20T07:55:00.000-08:00

Here are some additional auction results from 4.cn from the last couple weeks. In this batch, a four digit domain, 6666.com, actually captured first prize, going for nearly $100,000, more than several three digit domains that went for around $20,000-$30,000.

487.cn	￥7,100.00	$1,119
6666.com	￥623,000.00	$98,185
077.com	￥199,999.00	$31,520
986.com	￥185,001.00	$29,156
396.com	￥170,000.00	$26,792
732.com	￥138,000.00	$21,749
0333.com	￥40,500.00	$6,383
88.la	￥29,999.00	$4,728
675.cn	￥16,800.00	$2,648
0824.com	￥7,877.00	$1,241
9218.com	￥7,700.00	$1,214
0181.com	￥7,300.00	$1,150
7359.com	￥6,800.00	$1,072
6907.com	￥6,465.00	$1,019
0959.com	￥6,201.00	$977
7602.com	￥6,088.00	$959
66668.com	￥5,999.00	$945
3847.com	￥5,102.00	$804
3-15.com	￥3,401.00	$536
999998.com	￥1,950.00	$307
916.com.cn	￥1,850.00	$292
088888.com	￥1,750.00	$276
1131.net	￥1,000.00	$158
51516.com	￥1,000.00	$158
7911.net	￥740.00	$117
78833.com	￥720.00	$113
399399.com	￥720.00	$113
9119.net	￥640.00	$101
82255.com	￥540.00	$85
7515.net	￥520.00	$82
8259.net	￥500.00	$79
0078.net	￥460.00	$72
461.cc	￥441.00	$70
9138.net	￥440.00	$69
3038.net	￥420.00	$66
77729.com	￥420.00	$66
8827.net	￥420.00	$66
7598.net	￥411.00	$65
5951.net	￥400.00	$63
0977.net	￥400.00	$63
8365.net	￥340.00	$54
7169.net	￥320.00	$50
51585.com	￥280.00	$44
99984.com	￥280.00	$44
00000.mobi	￥220.00	$35
72225.com	￥220.00	$35
771188.com	￥220.00	$35
00552.com	￥200.00	$32
0017.com.cn	￥200.00	$32
3310086.com	￥200.00	$32
707707.com	￥200.00	$32
855558.com	￥200.00	$32
141414.com	￥200.00	$32
992992.com	￥120.00	$19
600521.com	￥86.00	$14
009966.com	￥80.00	$13
009977.com	￥60.00	$9

Closer Look at NNNN.com Prices

2011-12-08T10:37:00.000-08:00

I've assembled a database of nearly 300 NNNN.com sales and thought it would be interesting to look at the numbers in more detail, by year and starting number, to get a basic sense of how starting number impacts price and how this has changed. I grouped domains into two categories (sales in 2009 and earlier, and sales in 2010 and 2011).

Starting with a "0".
< 2010 Sales (14): Median Sale Price: $510. Average Sale Price: $619.
2010+ Sales (7): Median Sale Price: $950. Average Sale Price: $1,025.

Starting with a "1"
< 2010 Sales (11): Median Sale Price: $1,037. Average Sale Price: $1,372.
2010+ Sales (7): Median Sale Price: $2,078. Average Sale Price: $3,377.

Starting with a "2"
< 2010 Sales (18): Median Sale Price: $508. Average Sale Price: $1,244.
2010+ Sales (21): Median Sale Price: $1,500. Average Sale Price: $2,607.

NNNNN's Buyout Sticking, Daily Drops Falling

2011-12-08T10:22:00.000-08:00

NNNNN.com's have been all registered for a couple months now (since the beginning of October). The drops get picked up regularly, and the number of daily drops has fallen since the buyout.

In the third quarter of 2011, there were 54.8 drops per day on average. In the fourth quarter so far, there have been 46.2 drops per day (and only 40.1 so far in December).

Here is a graph showing the daily drops by month:

Graphing

Not surprisingly, the fall in daily drops coincided with the buyout. As demand is increasing for numeric domains, supply is tightening, and that makes holders more likely to renew their domains.

The average number of daily drops is nearing the raw number of LLLL.com's that drop on a daily basis.

Several Months of 4.cn Auction Results

2011-12-06T09:16:00.000-08:00

Been a little lazy providing sales results from 4.cn over the past couple months so here is a huge report of auction results dating back to late September, 2011. As we have seen in prior months, five and six digit domains are increasingly showing up in the higher dollar sales figures. The auction results are organized in descending order of final price, although I don't check if reserve was met, only what the final bid was.

Notable sales include 10000.com.cn for $10,200, 98888.com for $4,575, 66668.com for $3,283, 10050.cn for $2,460, and 777888.com for $1,620. The high prices for the five digit .cn's are interesting, and warrant a check into what percentage of these domains are registered.

886.com    ¥ 688,888.00   $103,333
838.com    ¥ 302,000.00   $45,300
505.com    ¥ 267,666.00   $40,150
798.com    ¥ 260,000.00   $39,000
77.com.cn    ¥ 79,000.00   $11,850
10000.com.cn    ¥ 68,000.00   $10,200
57.net    ¥ 63,888.00   $9,583
2777.com    ¥ 60,002.00   $9,000
83.net    ¥ 58,888.00   $8,833
92.net    ¥ 58,888.00   $8,833
300.com.cn    ¥ 58,000.00   $8,700
8288.com    ¥ 51,000.00   $7,650
53.net    ¥ 51,000.00   $7,650
4393.com    ¥ 50,000.00   $7,500
991.cn    ¥ 38,000.00   $5,700
5995.com    ¥ 35,000.00   $5,250
0880.com    ¥ 35,000.00   $5,250
599.cn    ¥ 34,500.00   $5,175
4288.com    ¥ 31,000.00   $4,650
98888.com    ¥ 30,500.00   $4,575
5880.com    ¥ 29,999.00   $4,500
8618.com    ¥ 28,500.00   $4,275
188.cc    ¥ 28,500.00   $4,275
0431.com.cn    ¥ 25,988.00   $3,898
66668.com    ¥ 21,888.00   $3,283
30.cc    ¥ 20,530.00   $3,080
10050.cn    ¥ 16,400.00   $2,460
835.cn    ¥ 15,300.00   $2,295
9871.com    ¥ 12,002.00   $1,800
777888.com    ¥ 10,800.00   $1,620
7229.com    ¥ 10,001.00   $1,500
89999.com    ¥ 9,999.00   $1,500
2266.net    ¥ 9,900.00   $1,485
799.net    ¥ 8,400.00   $1,260
6344.com    ¥ 7,800.00   $1,170
8531.com    ¥ 7,705.00   $1,156
7260.com    ¥ 7,700.00   $1,155
7352.com    ¥ 7,600.00   $1,140
6513.com    ¥ 7,600.00   $1,140
6793.com    ¥ 7,600.00   $1,140
0679.com    ¥ 7,500.00   $1,125
9603.com    ¥ 7,402.00   $1,110
4148.com    ¥ 7,400.00   $1,110
555666.com    ¥ 7,400.00   $1,110
532.net    ¥ 7,300.00   $1,095
7159.com    ¥ 7,200.00   $1,080
6203.com    ¥ 7,200.00   $1,080
3590.com    ¥ 7,108.00   $1,066
3296.com    ¥ 7,100.00   $1,065
8730.com    ¥ 7,099.00   $1,065
6951.com    ¥ 6,902.00   $1,035
0651.com    ¥ 6,900.00   $1,035
6325.com    ¥ 6,900.00   $1,035
7920.com    ¥ 6,800.00   $1,020
4475.com    ¥ 6,700.00   $1,005
36666.com    ¥ 6,600.00   $990
9420.com    ¥ 6,300.00   $945
4264.com    ¥ 6,000.00   $900
7498.com    ¥ 5,500.00   $825
5884.com    ¥ 5,400.00   $810
12120.com    ¥ 5,200.00   $780
8463.com    ¥ 4,900.00   $735
37777.com    ¥ 4,600.00   $690
88884.com    ¥ 4,600.00   $690
88866.com    ¥ 4,500.00   $675
4264.com    ¥ 4,500.00   $675
3462.com    ¥ 4,500.00   $675
0254.com    ¥ 4,400.00   $660
199.cc    ¥ 4,301.00   $645
4891.com    ¥ 4,300.00   $645
4357.com    ¥ 4,300.00   $645
4973.com    ¥ 4,200.00   $630
0274.com    ¥ 4,200.00   $630
222888.com    ¥ 4,100.00   $615
007007.com    ¥ 4,100.00   $615
5964.com    ¥ 4,100.00   $615
8346.com    ¥ 3,902.00   $585
26688.com    ¥ 3,901.00   $585
999555.com    ¥ 3,550.00   $533
39333.com    ¥ 3,500.00   $525
49999.com    ¥ 3,321.00   $498
99966.com    ¥ 3,200.00   $480
66633.com    ¥ 3,100.00   $465
459.net    ¥ 3,100.00   $465
788788.com    ¥ 3,000.00   $450
481.net    ¥ 3,000.00   $450
888555.com    ¥ 2,888.00   $433
99955.com    ¥ 2,601.00   $390
98111.com    ¥ 2,600.00   $390
47777.com    ¥ 2,600.00   $390
77733.com    ¥ 2,401.00   $360
444666.com    ¥ 2,200.00   $330
888111.com    ¥ 2,120.00   $318
0912.com.cn    ¥ 2,101.00   $315
555000.com    ¥ 2,100.00   $315
572.com.cn    ¥ 2,100.00   $315
962.com.cn    ¥ 2,100.00   $315
813.com.cn    ¥ 2,000.00   $300
777000.com    ¥ 1,950.00   $293
888333.com    ¥ 1,901.00   $285
97666.com    ¥ 1,800.00   $270
459.com.cn    ¥ 1,650.00   $248
967.com.cn    ¥ 1,638.00   $246
999222.com    ¥ 1,550.00   $233
222777.com    ¥ 1,550.00   $233
222999.com    ¥ 1,550.00   $233
9568.cn    ¥ 1,550.00   $233
4567.cc    ¥ 1,500.00   $225
99969.com    ¥ 1,300.00   $195
222000.com    ¥ 1,250.00   $188
069.com.cn    ¥ 1,150.00   $173
10222.com    ¥ 1,100.00   $165
88686.com    ¥ 1,100.00   $165
47666.com    ¥ 1,050.00   $158
0061.net    ¥ 1,015.00   $152
777222.com    ¥ 1,000.00   $150
888885.com    ¥ 1,000.00   $150
0514.org    ¥ 1,000.00   $150
108888.com    ¥ 960.00   $144
123333.com    ¥ 840.00   $126
963.co    ¥ 820.00   $123
37377.com    ¥ 760.00   $114
11171.com    ¥ 750.00   $113
2435.cn    ¥ 660.00   $99
84777.com    ¥ 620.00   $93
2665.net    ¥ 602.00   $90
2353.net    ¥ 601.00   $90
77717.com    ¥ 600.00   $90
000008.com    ¥ 561.00   $84
9663.net    ¥ 541.00   $81
029.me    ¥ 540.00   $81
8883888.com    ¥ 520.00   $78
473.cc    ¥ 520.00   $78
15700.com    ¥ 500.00   $75
88636.com    ¥ 500.00   $75
7750.net    ¥ 500.00   $75
2363.net    ¥ 500.00   $75
5528.net    ¥ 500.00   $75
023.us    ¥ 500.00   $75
171717.com.cn    ¥ 480.00   $72
19599.com    ¥ 480.00   $72
310.mobi    ¥ 480.00   $72
64777.com    ¥ 460.00   $69
648.cc    ¥ 420.00   $63
5338.net    ¥ 402.00   $60
74666.com    ¥ 400.00   $60
12001.com    ¥ 380.00   $57
75557.com    ¥ 380.00   $57
5591.net    ¥ 370.00   $56
61818.com    ¥ 360.00   $54
3787.net    ¥ 360.00   $54
3007.net    ¥ 360.00   $54
9817.net    ¥ 340.00   $51
0869.net    ¥ 340.00   $51
7039.cn    ¥ 322.00   $48
99226.com    ¥ 320.00   $48
68699.com    ¥ 320.00   $48
48848.com    ¥ 320.00   $48
6397.net    ¥ 320.00   $48
8294.net    ¥ 320.00   $48
163.cx    ¥ 320.00   $48
39390.com    ¥ 308.00   $46
181181.com    ¥ 300.00   $45
85857.com    ¥ 280.00   $42
882299.com    ¥ 270.00   $41
8886888.com    ¥ 260.00   $39
772200.com    ¥ 260.00   $39
395395.com    ¥ 260.00   $39
378378.com    ¥ 260.00   $39
68086.com    ¥ 260.00   $39
77753.com    ¥ 260.00   $39
1860.cc    ¥ 260.00   $39
2646.cn    ¥ 242.00   $36
790790.com    ¥ 240.00   $36
355355.com    ¥ 240.00   $36
993993.com    ¥ 240.00   $36
663311.com    ¥ 240.00   $36
332255.com    ¥ 240.00   $36
223223.com    ¥ 240.00   $36
154321.com    ¥ 240.00   $36
595595.com    ¥ 240.00   $36
03322.com    ¥ 240.00   $36
55503.com    ¥ 240.00   $36
16177.com    ¥ 240.00   $36
6542.net    ¥ 240.00   $36
1945.com.cn    ¥ 240.00   $36
2389.net    ¥ 240.00   $36
4427.net    ¥ 240.00   $36
890890.com    ¥ 220.00   $33
553553.com    ¥ 220.00   $33
187654.com    ¥ 220.00   $33
778833.com    ¥ 220.00   $33
232232.com    ¥ 220.00   $33
509509.com    ¥ 220.00   $33
273273.com    ¥ 220.00   $33
389389.com    ¥ 220.00   $33
737737.com    ¥ 220.00   $33
69994.com    ¥ 220.00   $33
00008.net    ¥ 220.00   $33
18770.com    ¥ 220.00   $33
41841.com    ¥ 220.00   $33
76787.com    ¥ 220.00   $33
4218.net    ¥ 220.00   $33
1349.net    ¥ 220.00   $33
8881.cc    ¥ 220.00   $33
1483.net    ¥ 220.00   $33
163.mx    ¥ 220.00   $33
800005.com    ¥ 200.00   $30
298298.net    ¥ 200.00   $30
670670.com    ¥ 200.00   $30
980098.com    ¥ 200.00   $30
229977.com    ¥ 200.00   $30
772233.com    ¥ 200.00   $30
771166.com    ¥ 200.00   $30
666868.com    ¥ 200.00   $30
888989.com    ¥ 200.00   $30
886686.com    ¥ 200.00   $30
863171.cn    ¥ 200.00   $30
606606.com    ¥ 200.00   $30
05385.com    ¥ 200.00   $30
55540.com    ¥ 200.00   $30
83831.com    ¥ 200.00   $30
85888.cn    ¥ 200.00   $30
9090.biz    ¥ 200.00   $30
3700.com.cn    ¥ 200.00   $30
0008.cc    ¥ 200.00   $30
4698.net    ¥ 200.00   $30
5995.com.cn    ¥ 200.00   $30
0564.so    ¥ 200.00   $30
3158.so    ¥ 200.00   $30
4399.so    ¥ 200.00   $30
7954.cn    ¥ 182.00   $27
7049.cn    ¥ 180.00   $27
86268.com    ¥ 150.00   $23
257257.com    ¥ 130.00   $20
176666.com    ¥ 120.00   $18
319319.com    ¥ 110.00   $17
957957.com    ¥ 110.00   $17
331144.com    ¥ 110.00   $17
615615.com    ¥ 100.00   $15
606606.com    ¥ 100.00   $15
20302.com    ¥ 90.00   $14
509509.com    ¥ 80.00   $12
19391.com    ¥ 80.00   $12
19765.com    ¥ 80.00   $12
698698.com    ¥ 70.00   $11
837837.com    ¥ 70.00   $11
212212.com    ¥ 70.00   $11
082082.com    ¥ 70.00   $11
888860.com    ¥ 70.00   $11
00552.com    ¥ 70.00   $11
16299.com    ¥ 70.00   $11
761761.com    ¥ 60.00   $9
187654.com    ¥ 60.00   $9
86085.com    ¥ 60.00   $9
8832.co    ¥ 60.00   $9
8831.co    ¥ 60.00   $9
6698.co    ¥ 60.00   $9
6889.co    ¥ 60.00   $9

QIHU and Numeric Domains

2011-11-29T08:51:00.000-08:00

Citron Research has recently attacked Qihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd., saying that the company is exaggerating its financial strengths, and then Citron has been attacked itself for its report. While QIHU has taken a beating in terms of its share price, we here at NNNNN Domains found something else interesting in the reports. Namely, that numeric domain names are at issue in the dispute.

Here is from Citron's report:

Qihu's homepage, shown below, resembles dozens or hundreds of other web directory / navigation sites which are very popular in China. Here are just a few:
http://www.2345.com/
http://www.265.com/
http://www.1616.net/?www2
http://www.tao123.com/ (taobao)
http://www.wu123.com/
http://www.0460.com/
http://www.91913.cn/
http://www.44244.com/default.html
http://www.9991.com/
http://www.537.com/
http://www.5566.net/
http://www.zgwdq.com/
http://www.46.com/
http://www.176176.com/
http://www.155.com/
http://www.haokan123.com/
http://www.129139.com/
http://www.wndhw.com/

You can see they're all very similar, (English speakers can get a pretty good sense of these using Google translate) In fact there's a fierce battle for domain-brand identity. In Qihoo's case, their portal is hao.360.cn. It is not hao360.com or hao360.cn, which appear to belong to others.
These sites typically focus on link traffic, not brand (display) advertising. Companies that pay for links on these are paying out of their advertising budgets … their online advertising budgets. Qihoo classifies this as "advertising revenue". Citron gets that … do you?

I see three digit domains (NNN), four digit domains (NNNN), five digit domains (NNNNN), and even six domains (NNNNN). Which just goes to show how significant numeric domain names are to Chinese companies and internet users.

From QIHU's prospectus, they note that they have $329,000 in carrying value for domain names in 2009 and $740,000 in 2010.

Recent Sales of 5 Digit Domains on 4.cn

2011-11-14T13:19:00.000-08:00

This list covers sales from the last month and a half and lists auction results in yuan and $USD. I do not check if the domain sold, only report the final price listed on 4.cn.

There was $26,760 in total auction volume, with an average sale price of $637.15. The median sale price was $39. it should be noted that the list includes some .nets and some .cn's, etc.

It certainly appears that volume and price are starting to tick up now that these domains have been bought out for over a month.

55503.com     ¥ 240.00    $36
00552.com     ¥ 70.00    $11
11171.com     ¥ 750.00    $113
66668.com     ¥ 21,888.00    $3,283
10050.cn     ¥ 16,400.00    $2,460
10000.com.cn     ¥ 68,000.00    $10,200
98888.com     ¥ 30,500.00    $4,575
05385.com     ¥ 200.00    $30
37777.com     ¥ 4,600.00    $690
47666.com     ¥ 1,050.00    $158
74666.com     ¥ 400.00    $60
00008.net     ¥ 220.00    $33
88884.com     ¥ 4,600.00    $690
86085.com     ¥ 60.00    $9
77717.com     ¥ 600.00    $90
86268.com     ¥ 150.00    $23
61818.com     ¥ 360.00    $54
98111.com     ¥ 2,600.00    $390
99955.com     ¥ 2,601.00    $390
55540.com     ¥ 200.00    $30
16299.com     ¥ 70.00    $11
88636.com     ¥ 500.00    $75
85857.com     ¥ 280.00    $42
68699.com     ¥ 320.00    $48
12001.com     ¥ 380.00    $57
84777.com     ¥ 620.00    $93
18770.com     ¥ 220.00    $33
97666.com     ¥ 1,800.00    $270
83831.com     ¥ 200.00    $30
64777.com     ¥ 460.00    $69
47777.com     ¥ 2,600.00    $390
77733.com     ¥ 2,401.00    $360
41841.com     ¥ 220.00    $33
99969.com     ¥ 1,300.00    $195
76787.com     ¥ 220.00    $33
49999.com     ¥ 3,321.00    $498
16177.com     ¥ 240.00    $36
36666.com     ¥ 6,600.00    $990
75557.com     ¥ 380.00    $57
48848.com     ¥ 320.00    $48
77753.com     ¥ 260.00    $39
85888.cn     ¥ 200.00    $30

Five Digit Domains Remain All Sold Out

2011-11-03T10:12:00.000-07:00

On October 3, 2011, we noted that NNNNN.com domains (five digit .com domains) were all sold out.

A month later, they remain all bought out.

Unlike the buyout in February 2008, this one did not happen in a frenzy of registration, where 20,000 domains disappeared over the course of one month. Rather, the registration rate has been around 10-15/day for the last two years, representing a steady accumulation of these domains and an increase in long-term holders (domains registered for longer than one year).

At this point there are only about 30% of the domains that are on 1-year registration, this figure has been steadily dropping 10% each year for the last 7 years. It is likely that if the buyout sticks it will drop even more, and by this time next year only 10-15% of the domains will be on 1-year registration, if that many.

Prices are increasing as well, as well as volume of sales, for those who have been following 4.cn. For example, 37777.com sold for 4600 RMB last week, or $724 USD. 47666.com sold for 1500 RMB, or $236 USD.

So far the buyout has stuck for a month. Will it last? Stay tuned.

NNNNN.com Buyout Update

2011-10-25T08:22:00.000-07:00

NNNNN.com domains (five digit .com domains) remain all bought out. The buyout has held for nearly a month.

What's more, supply is tightening as well. The number of daily drops has fallen off a cliff, in the five days from October 24th to October 28th, only 107 domains will drop, which represents an average drop rate of around 21 domains per day. This compares to an average drop rate over the past few months of more than 60 per day.

With such a small drop rate the buyout is certainly sustainable. It remains to be seen whether the drop rate will stay this low. To put the numbers in perspective, the number of LLLL.com's dropping over the same 5-day time period will be 149.

However, it is likely that even if the drop rate does not stay this low, supply will continue to tighten compared to historical averages. There have been several hundred auction sales of NNNNN.com domains this year, mostly on Chinese auction sites like 4.cn, and the average sale price is well over $100.

Continued growth of the Chinese internet, strong sales of the domains, tightening supply, and a buyout that has been foreseeable since summer has probably convinced many holders to renew their domains.

A Tale of Two Buyouts

2011-10-12T07:25:00.000-07:00

NNNNN.com's remain all bought since October 3rd. This is the longest they have remained bought out since the frenzy in early 2008, although this time the market seems much stronger for reasons we have chronicled in previous posts.

To try to figure out if the buyout can stick this time it is useful to look at that other big domain buyout of recent times that has stuck, the LLLL.com buyout in late 2007. A couple months after being bought out these domains experienced significant price appreciation, which anyone who was involved in the domain market back then will surely remember.

I thought it would be interesting to go back in time and research how many LLLL.com's were dropping on average on a daily basis before the buyout. Because, for the buyout to stick, this number of domains had to be accounted for on a daily basis even after the last available LLLL was registered. So there needed to be enough buying support to "cover" the daily drops so to speak.

Here is a graph showing the average daily drops from Q3 2007 for LLLL.com's, compared with the average daily drops from Q3 2011 for NNNNN.com's.

Create a graph

There are about 20 fewer NNNN.com drops per day than LLLL.com's were dropping around the same time in 2007. This is 20 fewer domains that need to be "covered" on a daily basis for the buyout to stick. The NNNNN.com buyout seems definitely doable at this point.

One could argue that the numbers actually suggest the opposite, that since there are about 4.5x more LLLL.com's than there are NNNNN.com's in total, so the number dropping could suggest that there are currently too many drops relative to the total size of the market for NNNNN's. But this seems like an incorrect way of looking at the situation, since the total number of NNNNN.com's is not really relevant to the question at hand, which is: is there enough buying support to cover all of the daily drops. The percentage of total domains dropping seems less relevant than the actual number, especially when we are dealing with such small percentages of the total domains anyways. Over the next weeks and months we will see whether the buyout will stick. My guess is it will.

As Markets Crash, Numeric Domains Disappear

2011-10-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

Anyone watching the markets these days ($SPY $QQQ $IWM) can see that things are bad, and probably going to get a lot worse. With bonds, precious metals, commodities, and stocks all looking like bad investments at these levels, there seems to be very few places worth putting money. $SPY looks poised to break $110 for a trip down to $100 and then possibly much lower. Bonds ($TLT) are doing well but how much further do they have to go? Europe is falling apart, and precious metals provide some hedge against currency debasement and global unrest ($SLV $GLD) but are very expensive at these levels and prone to mass liquidations like we saw over the last few weeks. Are there any alternative investments that make sense right now?

Yes. My personal preference is numeric domain names, because China is driving the demand for these pieces of internet real estate. As we have profiled before, Chinese registrars are booming, and numeric domains which are popular in China are in the early stages of a huge bull market. There simply aren't that many of these domains available, only 10,000 four digit .com domains exist and only 100,000 5 digit domains, all of which are registered as of this morning. There are a million six digit .com combinations, and there seem to be more than 100,000 of these domains registered already as well, with the nicer ones commanding high prices every day in auctions at 4.cn, the premier Chinese domain auction site.

This is a tiny market, and supply is drying up. Five digit .com domains have been teetering near a buyout for months, and are currently bought out as of today. If the buyout sticks, prices will likely rise, and six digit domains will be the next battlefield for registrations. With total .com domain registrations approaching 100 million, it is very likely that over the next decade these domains will all disappear as well. While everything else in the market may be crashing, numeric domains look likely to significantly outperform over the next several years.

Strong Numeric Domains Auction Results from 4.cn

2011-09-28T06:44:00.000-07:00

In the last two weeks there were 17 auctions of NNNNN.com's for an average final price of $201 . Someone is buying up nearly all the supply of NNNNN.com's with multiple repeating digits. Meanwhile, as of this morning there is only 1 NNNNN.com available out of 100,000. You heard it here folks, NNNNN.com's are the new NNNN.com's.

66811.com   RMB¥280   $42       2011-09-24 22:30:00
378.com.cn   RMB¥2,602   $390       2011-09-25 21:58:17
962.com.cn   RMB¥2,100   $315       2011-09-26 21:32:15
7260.com   RMB¥7,700   $1,155       2011-09-26 21:41:00
0514.org   RMB¥1,000   $150       2011-09-27 09:27:39
85888.cn   RMB¥200   $30       2011-09-27 21:00:00
007007.com   RMB¥4,100   $615       2011-09-27 21:02:42
77753.com   RMB¥260   $39       2011-09-27 22:22:06
48848.com   RMB¥320   $48       2011-09-27 22:30:00
75557.com   RMB¥380   $57       2011-09-28 21:01:44
967.com.cn   RMB¥1,638   $246       2011-09-28 21:21:06
36666.com   RMB¥6,600   $990       2011-09-28 21:34:45
46969.com   RMB¥200   $30       2011-09-17 21:20:00
849.com.cn   RMB¥762   $114       2011-09-17 21:30:00
362.com.cn   RMB¥1,708   $256       2011-09-17 21:35:14
8932.cn   RMB¥480   $72       2011-09-18 21:20:00
999799.com   RMB¥200   $30       2011-09-18 21:20:00
888666.com.cn   RMB¥240   $36       2011-09-20 21:30:00
88222.net   RMB¥240   $36       2011-09-20 21:32:24
3067.com   RMB¥7,001   $1,050       2011-09-20 22:03:29
55656.com   RMB¥300   $45       2011-09-22 21:02:06
7039.cn   RMB¥350   $53       2011-09-22 21:10:00
0274.com   RMB¥5,100   $765       2011-09-22 22:22:47
88555.com   RMB¥3,400   $510       2011-09-23 21:20:00
22288.com   RMB¥4,100   $615       2011-09-23 21:30:00
88333.com   RMB¥3,800   $570       2011-09-23 22:16:43
99933.com   RMB¥3,300   $495       2011-09-23 22:32:57
8885888.com   RMB¥1,411   $212       2011-09-23 22:34:51
111777.com   RMB¥3,000   $450       2011-09-24 21:14:07
72277.com   RMB¥610   $92       2011-09-24 21:25:22
77744.com   RMB¥621   $93       2011-09-24 22:00:00
57771.com   RMB¥260   $39       2011-09-24 22:11:07
99949.com   RMB¥960   $144       2011-09-15 21:00:00
2290.com   RMB¥11,201   $1,680       2011-09-15 21:55:17
11199.com   RMB¥3,811   $572       2011-09-15 22:35:05
36988.com   RMB¥420   $63       2011-09-16 21:34:20
000888.com   RMB¥6,700   $1,005       2011-09-16 22:22:06
578.cc   RMB¥1,150   $173       2011-09-17 21:16:28

Numeric Domains Auction Results from 4.cn

2011-09-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

Another week of strong numerics auction results over at 4.cn.

Some interesting things in this weeks results, first one is lots of 6 digit sales. Sales of these domains really seems to be heating up. Another thing to note is sky-high prices for NNNNN.com's with repeating digits. 84555.com has only three repeating digits and a "4" and it went for over $100, and AABBB pattern domains went for $495 and $615. Another thing to note is that volume of five-digit and six-digit domains is starting to surpass NNNN.com's, which is not surprising given that the supply is much higher, but is a new trend, showing that buyers are likely finding it harder to acquire NNNN.com's and are turning their attention to longer number domains.

Here are the results:

8940.net    RMB¥220    $33
84555.com    RMB¥700    $105
33111.com    RMB¥3,300    $495
33222.com    RMB¥4,100    $615
4288.com    RMB¥49,500    $7,425
19.net    RMB¥65,000    $9,750
462.com.cn    RMB¥1,002    $150
071.com.cn    RMB¥1,460    $219
3367.net    RMB¥580    $87
3371.net    RMB¥440    $66
3775.net    RMB¥352    $53
887799.com    RMB¥440    $66
951951.com    RMB¥220    $33
656656.com    RMB¥220    $33
525525.com    RMB¥220    $33
826826.com    RMB¥220    $33
345678.com.cn    RMB¥540    $81
7111.com    RMB¥37,501    $5,625
871.cc    RMB¥660    $99
712.cc    RMB¥660    $99
376.cc    RMB¥660    $99
4287.com    RMB¥4,340    $651
3590.com    RMB¥7,600    $1,140
4367.com    RMB¥5,700    $855
995.cc    RMB¥1,150    $173
552.cc    RMB¥1,150    $173
633.cc    RMB¥1,150    $173
4830.NET    RMB¥200    $30
3025.NET    RMB¥302    $47
2589.NET    RMB¥240    $37
025025.com    RMB¥540    $81

97 Million .com Domains Registered!

2011-09-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

As we keep the countdown flame going on the way to 100 million .com domains, yet another milestone has been reached. As it currently stands, 97,086,942 domains are currently registered. This represents an average registration increase of 16,675 per day since we last checked on August 29th.

Where is the continued growth coming from? A lot of it is from China.

Here is a graph showing .com domain registration at two of China's top registrars, xinnetdns.com and hichina.com, over the last eight years:

Graph maker

Internet penetration is still in its early stages in China, so there is a lot more room for growth in Chinese .com registration, and especially in numeric domains, which are very popular in China. The current near-buyout of five-digit .com domains (NNNNN.com's) and fast-increasing prices for four digit domains, which now fetch around $700-$1,000 per domain as a minimum, are an indication of what the future holds.

For those that have made investments or are considering investments in Chinese real estate ($TAO, $EJ, $CHLN, $XIN), you might consider an investment in "virtual" Chinese real estate to augment your portfolio. Numeric domains rank high in the Alexa top Chinese websites, and Chinese internet users often prefer numbers to letters because of their cultural significance and their unfamiliarity with western characters. And numeric domains are in short supply. There are only 10,000 four digit .com domains, which are all registered, 100,000 five digit .com domains, which are more than 99.9% registered, and a million six digit .com domains, which, surprisingly enough, a significant chunk of are registered and some already sell for inflated prices. This is the future of domain investing.

NNNN.org Domains - In Depth Look

2011-09-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

As of today there are 735 NNNN.org domains available for register, or 7.35% of the 10,000 total domains that exist. Recently there seems to have been an uptick in registration interest in these domains, as nearly 300 have been registered in the last few months. The registration rate appears to be around 4/day on average, which suggests that in 6 months, if current trends continue, these domains may be all registered.

Previously, we have shown that prices for numeric .org domains significantly trail prices for .com and .net, and the disparity is much greater than for letter domains like LLL.net or LLLL.com. This suggests that even if there is a buyout, there may not be much impact on prices.

Today we look at who owns NNNN.org domains and how long they have been registered for. We looked at a small sample size of 50 random registered NNNN.org domains to get a sense of how long these domains have been registered. Here are the results for years registered (between creation date and expiration date):

Graph maker

This was very interesting, more than half of the registered NNNN.org domains we looked at were registered 8 years ago, and most of these were done by a company called Future Media Architects. Future media, according to Wikipedia, is known for (1) its large portfolio of domain names, which is estimated to exceed 120,000, and (2) for its policy of never selling its domains. FMA apparently registered a huge chunk of NNNN.org domains in the 1000-7500 number range, and apparently stopped there.

Now for who owns NNNN.org domains, here were the results with the same data set:

Graph maker

A lot of the Asian buyers (primarily Chinese) of NNNN.org domains have registered them in the last four years, and they make up nearly all of the recent registrants. It is possible that they are buying these domains to complement a NNNN.com or .net domain they own, or perhaps are looking to buy a higher quality number in a .org extension when the .com version costs $1,000 if not much more.

Numeric Domain Auction Results from 4.cn

2011-09-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

Here are some auction result numbers from the last week at the main Chinese domain auction site. Lots of numeric sales, including 8 NNNNN.com's. Lots more in the pipeline, including a surprising number of six-digit domains.

88111.com    RMB¥3,502    $525
4365.com    RMB¥5,200    $780
53222.com    RMB¥780    $117
5671.net    RMB¥720    $108
0428.cn    RMB¥200    $30
6639.net    RMB¥520    $78
9932.net    RMB¥500    $75
858.cc    RMB¥4,100    $615
95277.com    RMB¥220    $33
7.tl    RMB¥4,000    $600
736.cc    RMB¥1,300    $195
77727.com    RMB¥1,050    $158
00252.com    RMB¥50    $8
88117.com    RMB¥240    $36
22765.com    RMB¥280    $42
99902.com    RMB¥320    $48
458.net    RMB¥4,600    $690
4008.net    RMB¥920    $138
982.cc    RMB¥1,000    $150
30.cc    RMB¥20,000    $3,000
067.cc    RMB¥800    $120

Short Domains by Market Cap

2011-08-31T09:59:00.000-07:00

Given the hunt for stores of value these days that are unaffected by currency debasement, I thought it would be interesting to look at what the "market cap" is for various short domains?

Here are the results (in $ millions) when market cap is determined by median sale price.

Graphing

N refers to a number and L refers to a letter, so NNN.coms are 3-digit .com domains, and LLLL.com's are four letter .com domains.

The market cap for NN.com's is the smallest, around $8 million, because there are only 100 of these domains, and median sale prices are around $80,000. The median sale prices for LL.com's (676 in existence) are around $125,000.

Interestingly, there is a huge drop-off in market cap for LLLL.com's versus LLL.com's, because median sale prices for LLLL.com's is approximately $20, and even with the huge size of the market (456,976 domains), the market cap is dragged down by the vast quantity of "bad letter" sales.

Of course, if you determine market cap by reference to average sale price, a completely different result occurs.

Graphing

The total market cap for all short domains two letters NNNN.com's and LL-LLLL.com's? About $500 million. This figure may seem large, but it is actually mind-numbingly small. A hedge fund or large institutional investor could easily buy up a huge chunk of the market.

Compare this to the market for gold. I know there are some gold bugs out there, but come on, things are a little bit nuts over there, the market cap for the gold market is approximately $9 trillion!

I would personally rather have a decent NNNN.com or a random LLL.com than an ounce of gold right now, that's for sure. At least short domains have a variety of real uses and generate income. Plus the available supply is fixed. People hoarding gold and silver right now apparently do not seem to notice or care that the stuff is just sitting there in the ground, and can be retrieved for a fraction of current prices. Basic logic suggests there will eventually be a huge price correction.

In short domain land on the other hand, awareness among the general population of domains as an alternative investment vehicle is still very low. As we are approaching 100 million registered .com domains, with no end in sight to the growth of the domain market as China comes online en masse, it is inevitable that the shortest and most versatile domains will become more.

4.cn Auction Results Keep Coming

2011-08-30T13:41:00.000-07:00

More nice numerics sales on 4.cn.

881588.com    RMB¥200    $30
811188.com    RMB¥200    $30
123456.hk    RMB¥220    $33
6245.com    RMB¥4,301    $645
98198.com.cn    RMB¥200    $30
4765.com    RMB¥9,999    $1,500
6686.com    RMB¥66,000    $9,900
339933.com    RMB¥200    $30

99 Million .com domains registered by the end of the year.

2011-08-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

As of today, there were 96,853,495 .com domains registered.

In the last month and a half, the registration rate has averaged 17,648 domains per day. At the current rate, more than 99,000,000 domains will be registered by year end.

So we probably won't hit 100,000,000 by year end, but registration rates remain strong.

Registration Data for NNNNN.com Domains

2011-08-26T14:01:00.000-07:00

This post looks at registration data for 250 random NNNNN.com domains to gain insight into the landscape.

The first item we will look at is how long NNNNN.com domains have been continuously registered.

Graphing

As the results show, about 30% of NNNNN.com domains have been registered continuously for one year (meaning their expiration date is less than one year away from when they were initially registered). The second largest result was for domains registered for 7 years, which is when Marchex registered nearly all the US zip code domains. Domains that have been registered for longer are more likely to continue to be registered, and to be used for developed sites or cash-generating parked pages.

The average expiration date for domains registered for one year is February 8, 2012, which is close to six months away from today, suggesting that expiration dates are evenly spread throughout the year.

The big open question is how many of the most recent registrants will hold their domains for longer than a year. If nearly all of them let their domains expire, there may not be a buyout this year of NNNNN.coms that sticks. On the other hand, if only 1/4 of recent registrants renew their domains, it is likely that the buyout will stick at some point in the near future, given the strong continued buying/registering interest in NNNNN.com's and the increasingly tightening supply (over 99.9% are currently registered). And the data from past years suggests that this is not unreasonable to expect.

I have been looking at drops over the past month or so and approximately 58 domains drop per day. This shows that approximately 1/3 of new registrants (registered in the past year) are renewing their domains, and 2/3 are letting them drop. While this might suggest weakness in the NNNNN.com market, it actually shows that supply is tightening very rapidly, and that last year's 10,000 domains renewed by first-time registrants will likely be repeated this year. This is an incredibly bullish projection for NNNNN.com domains at this point, and suggests the buyout will likely stick at some point in the next year as continued interest from new registrants and tightening supply make it virtually inevitable. In two or three years it is likely that NNNNN.com drops will be as rare as LLLL.com drops (about 10-20/day) or possibly even rarer.

The next item looks at who owns NNNNN.com domains.

Graphing

Of the 250 randomly selected domains, nearly half were owned by Asians, mainly Chinese, although some Japanese and Hong Kong owners appeared as well. The next biggest category of owners was Marchex, which I listed separately even though it is a US company. Interestingly, the next biggest owner of NNNNN.com domains is Italy, and these domains have been registered for several years. Although these domains are not currently developed it appears, perhaps they are being planned for use as Italian zip code domains, as Italian postal codes are also 5 digits.

The predominance of Asian owners suggests why supply has been tightening over the past couple years and registration periods increasing. Simply put, internet use is expanding rapidly in China and will continue to do so over the next few decades. We are likely in the early stages of an incredible bull market in numeric domains.

Auction Results from 4.cn

2011-08-24T09:41:00.000-07:00

Here are more auction results from the last week at 4.cn.

811188.com	RMB¥200	$30
2817.cn	RMB¥351	$53
7276.cn	RMB¥469	$70
987188.com	RMB¥200	$30
265.so	RMB¥320	$48
180.so	RMB¥380	$57
155.so	RMB¥400	$60
5572.net	RMB¥485	$73
4408.net	RMB¥320	$48
76777.com	RMB¥3,608	$541
7387.cn	RMB¥440	$66
5106.com	RMB¥9,733	$1,460
580.so	RMB¥703	$105
58882.com	RMB¥220	$33
3119.net	RMB¥590	$89
7858.net	RMB¥650	$98
9290.com	RMB¥13,000	$1,950
9609.cn	RMB¥510	$77
45566.com	RMB¥2,100	$315

48 NNNNN.com available to register

2011-08-22T06:25:00.000-07:00

After touching all-bought-out status a couple times in the last month, a week of heavy drops has left us with 48 NNNNN.com domains available to register as of this morning.

That is still very few, as 100,000 of these domains exist in total.

It is quite possible that in a year's time or less, these domains will be 100% registered and all drops will be picked up, similar to what exists with LLLL.com domains. Unlike with the previous buyout of NNNNN.com's where 20,000 domains were bought in a frenzy in a couple weeks, this one has been years in the making, with a steady registration pace of around 13/day. Therefore it makes sense that the buyout doesn't "stick" immediately, because it is not a buyout like the last one.

The buyers nowadays are not looking to cash in on the next domain buyout bubble like LLLL.com's in early 2008, when bad letters were going for $50-$60 a pop. We all know how that ended, both LLLL.com's and NNNNN.com's crashed, LLLL.com's back to being around $10-$15 for bad letters and NNNNN.com's back to reg fee.

Long term, the fundamentals for NNNNN.com's are likely as good or even better than LLLL.com's, and the sneaking steady registration is a sign of that. A significant portion of these domains are actually used by end-users for traffic, redirect, or real developed sites (mainly Chinese but other foreign and English-language sites as well). Plus, whereas there are 450,000+ LLLL.com's, there are only 100,000 NNNNN.com's, and a random NNNNN.com is likely to get significantly more google hits (and therefore possible uses) than a random LLLL.com.

Ebay Auctions

2011-08-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

22 rare Palindromic NNNNNN.com (6 digit .com domains) with "88" in the middle are currently up for auction at Ebay. Will be interesting to see how they do, lots of nice six digit sales have been coming through recently.

Another Ebay sale of note recently.

29900.com sold for $49.99. Here is the link for that one. Other recent sales for ABBCC.com numeric domains have also been good:

36677.com sold for $78 on 4.cn.
23377.com sold for $42 on 4.cn

More 4.cn Auction Results

2011-08-16T08:20:00.000-07:00

Some more five and six digit domains, as well as a bunch of NNNN.com and NNNN.net domains. Interesting to see that 78333 fetches almost as much as 73337, three repeating digits add significant value to a numeric domain. Even two repeating digits adds value, as you can see from 7151 going for $4,500, significantly more than the baseline value for a NNNN.com that has no "4" and doesn't start with a "0".

448888.com    RMB¥220    $33
67688.com    RMB¥260    $39
2794.com    RMB¥4,600    $690
7151.com    RMB¥30,000    $4,500
78333.com    RMB¥840    $126
9463.com    RMB¥5,800    $870
4288.net    RMB¥430    $65
8114.net    RMB¥340    $51
881888.com    RMB¥480    $72
250.so    RMB¥600    $90
3717.net    RMB¥560    $84
3784.com    RMB¥4,600    $690
0496.com    RMB¥4,600    $690
73337.com    RMB¥1,001    $150
9893.net    RMB¥520    $78
2788.com    RMB¥55,000    $8,250
0497.com    RMB¥4,600    $690
0274.com    RMB¥4,600    $690