The domain name i.vip sells for $100,667

According to west.cn the domain name i.vip sold for ¥700,000 (about $100,667) in an auction that ended yesterday.

The sale came just days after the .vip extension got approval by the Chinese government.

The domain i.vip was previously sold for $48,836 in May 2016 in an Ali auction according to Sold.Domains.

Other .vip domain name sales were reported as well:

  • pay.vip sold for $67,552
  • car.vip sold for $35,644
  • 521.vip sold for $15,235
  • 92.vip sold for $25,583

According to West.cn all domains were sold by domainers. They were not auctioned by the .vip registry.

The domains were sold in a 190.com auction. As to if the domains are going to be paid, it remains to be seen.

The sale of i.vip is the 5th New gTLD sale of 2016 over $100,000 behind 1.xyz, sex.live, porn.live, and co.ltd. You can see the top 20 New gTLD domain sales of 2016 here.

i.vip ranks 10th in the all time new domain extension sales.

Sold.Domains

About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

7 comments

  1. Another Nice 6 digit sale to tuck under the .vip belt. I have to admit, some of them are seller better than I expected.

  2. “According to West.cn all domains were sold by domainers. They were not auctioned by the .vip registry”

    We sure could use more of that in other auctions. Most auctions seem to load up on registry names, an example being Namescon/Namejet 2017….

    • @Aaron Strong,

      Yes, I agree. Registries stepped on their own wholesale market by elbowing aside most domainer-owned nTLD domains in these high-profile auctions and preferentially listing their own inventory.

      They know the direct financial benefit, which is why they do it. But they don’t calculate the indirect cost to themselves. By depressing liquidity among domainers, they drive down renewal rates.

      • There is more money selling direct than through domainers and collecting renewals.

      • There are many great New G’s now owned by investors that would bring in decent sales in an auction. This would assist to establish an aftermarket, which in return would create more demand….It is the main argument made by those that oppose the New G’s and I hear it all the time, “there is no aftermarket or demand.”..Start selling domainer owned New G’s in auctions, demand will increase and registrations will quickly follow.

  3. Thanks for posting this timely summary, Konstantinos.

    Dot-VIP is definitely one of the winning G’s. And it should be noted that these sales are happening without any noteworthy, live sites (yet) launched atop this extension.

    It’s a sure bet that that’s going to change over the next year or two.

  4. China gets all awesome names; good for them. “.vip” will increase its value!

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