OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
I had this feeling that I was getting fewer domain name inquiries lately.
While I was deciding whether to renew or drop a batch of New gTLDs I noticed that one of my domains, reverse.engineering, had some very strange inquiry stats. It had 4 inquiries in 2014, 9 in 2015, 13 in 2016 and only 1 in 2017 so far.
So I decided to check my New gTLD domain inquiry stats until the 13th of June 2017. I only checked my DomainNameSales inquiries that is where most (if not all) of my New gTLDs are parked. I am not counting direct whois inquiries or at other venues like GoDaddy, but I think the numbers would be similar.
The numbers show that my New gTLD inquiries peaked in late 2015 and in 2016 and have slowed down significantly in 2017.
I had inquiries on about 300 of my New gTLDs for a total of more that a thousand inquiries since 2014:
| Year | Inquiries |
| 2014 | 99 |
| 2015 | 388 |
| 2016 | 415 |
| 2017 (until June 13) | 107 |
| Total | 1009 |
Of course the 2017 stats are for less than 6 months but at this rate I would expect about 233 inquiries in 2017. That is significantly lower than 2015 and 2016.
Yes, I have dropped a few domains in 2017 but these domains had mostly no inquires. Some of these were active for a few months in 2017 so I am counting them. I might be short of 15 inquiries from these dropped domains.
I then checked to see if I get more inquiries in the 2nd half of the year but that is not the case.
| Date | Inquiries |
| 1/1 – 13/6 2014 | 8 |
| 14/6 – 31/12 2014 | 99 |
| 1/1 – 13/6 2015 | 140 |
| 14/6 – 31/12 2015 | 248 |
| 1/1 – 13/6 2016 | 225 |
| 14/6 – 31/12 2016 | 190 |
| 1/1 – 13/6 2017 | 107 |
You can see that my New gTLD inquiries peaked in late 2015 and were pretty good in 2016 (with a slight decline) but have tanked in 2017.
The truth is that by late 2016 most of the New gTLDs had launched. So is it possible that the initial New gTLD fever is over and people stopped reading about New gTLDs in the news and simply forgot about them?
The quality of the 2017 inquires vs the previous years has not changed. I wonder if other New gTLD owners are seeing a similar trend. Sales are not great either. I have sold a couple cheap ones in 2017. BTW the inquiries for my other extensions are about the same as in 2015 and 2016.
More stats
Here are a few of my domains that have a total of 10 or more inquiries and their stats in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017. They display a similar trend. (Some domains were registered in 2015 so they have 0 inquiries in 2014 or some are registered in mid-2015)
body.works
0
2
9
1
club.red
0
11
8
3
digital.expert
0
6
6
0
live.today
0
4
6
0
net.works
0
4
13
5
the.works
0
2
6
2
web.expert
0
2
6
2
weed.farm
1
8
5
0
wood.furniture
1
3
7
0
world.photos
3
13
4
1
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One thing to consider is this: domains that received inquiries don’t seem to receive as many after a couple of rounds. Especially if they are popular but targeted by the same pool of potential buyers. So you might want to analyze the numbers using only the number of domains, not the number of inquiries in total.
I am not sure I understand. Can you please explain?
1. All inquiries are not equal. You can get one inquiry for $50,000 and 50 for a total of $1,000;
2. Inquiries are not mathematically determined in the form of ‘factorial’, in essence, each SLD has a specific target, therefore, if that Company or entity makes an inquiry the first year, they may not make another one in subsequent years, they are out of the potential pool.
3. The stats is therefore not definitive, one way or the other.
My stats are pretty definitive. If people would post their stats then we would know more. But no.
You do get credit for posting your stats, but that doesn’t absolve the data from scrutiny and interpretation, where the poster is automatically credible.
If you don’t offer comparable stats then we don’t have much to compare, do we? I have covered all bases I could. Give me numbers.
Your stats, even added to my own, will NOT form a representative sample, in other words, the data will not represent what you are trying to claim; but that’s NOT even what concerns me.
The data you provided, does not approximate, characterize, nor measure the attributes, characteristics, nor properties of the NewgTLD market, and interest. It’s neither qualitative, nor quantitative data. It doesn’t describe, and it doesn’t define, so there’s no need to compare anything. I’m not quarreling with the data, I’m simply saying that the integers you stated have so many variables, including good, and bad luck, that there’s no way to interpret it rationally, or predictably.
Outside of this particular post, you do share more stats than your colleagues, and that is commendable. But please, do not assume that you are more accurate simply because you post more. I’m not accusing you of doing so, just making sure that’s not the assumption.
It is a sample of 500+ New gTLDs that I paid more than $50,000 to buy them. It is what it is. It is not a scientific study.
I don’t have any more data that is why I am asking for more. The more data the more accurate the trend.
My data is a part of the New gTLD market. And I think it is above average. Good and bad luck has nothing to do with this data that is over a 1000 inquiries over 3 years over 300 domain names.
You may talk about luck in sales but in inquiries not so much.
My data tells me that inquiries have slowed down for one reason or another. No one has said the opposite.
No one has offered the slightest piece of data so either they agree, or they don’t care to share anything, or they don’t like looking at their numbers or they simply don’t know their numbers.
My data is accurate for my data. My data is not a 100% accurate depiction of your data. I think you have some misunderstanding here.
“It is what it is. It is not a scientific study”. – KZ
Then, we agree.
Another thing I noticed, many of the earlier inquiries were from people thinking your page was the registration page to fresh reg the domain. Once met with a 4-5 figure price, they most likely ran for the hills.
So you have 1017 inquiries, how many sales that would be a great ratio, and the great thing about your portfolio it is of quality, so it is a pure number.
Konstantinos, do you count all inquiries or only those in which people expressed their interest in purchasing the domains? DNS allows people send inquiries without making an offer, so very often peoples inquiries via DNS platform in fact are not true ones.
I count them all. But in all years so it doesn’t make a difference. A slowdown is a slowdown.
DNS used to change the look of default for sale lander couple of times in last few years I believe. Maybe they made it clearer now that the domain name has no running website on it and is offered for sale. If so one may get less inquiries because of filtering out “incorrect” ones. That may be the case if you are using for sale lander.
.com inquiries are the same as I said.
107 inquiries in 2017 so far and only 2 minor sales?
A 1.9% sales/inquiries ratio is very low or to use Mark Cuban’s words, “horrible, horrible!” 🙂
IMHO that confirms that:
– new gTLDs are also perceived just as very cheap plan B if you can’t afford .com or other major extensions, so buyers run away if they are not priced accordingly …
– many of those DNS/Uniregistry inquiries are fake and “mistakes” (as far as I know, many other domainers have experienced that with an “alarming” frequency).
– the new gTLDs bubble is bursting, as I was expecting.
1. Yes I usually price them high.
2. It was the same as the previous years.
3. Something is very wrong. Overall sales at sold.domains are down as well. Sedo sales are down etc.
Im not a gtld fan, but a thought crossed my mind:
Did you sell a few gtlds that generated a lot of inquiries before being sold? That could be a factor.
No. The ones I sold had 1 or 2 total in 3 years.
in the last month over 30k of sales have on our little fourum gtld.link
Yes, so?
GTLD’s are ALL Pigeon Shit. Even .WEB is DOA. Frank Shilling and Negari put the final nail in the “Coffin!!! Glad I never touched that crap!
GTLD’s are like a “Hooker” you might bang one in a dark alley but you would never bring home to your “mother”. Another words, you might play with a GTLD than dump it, whereas a .com, you have a long term relationship with:-)
I know several dudes that married hookers. They aren’t all bad. You just have to pay a little more to keep them.
In my view ntld interest typically slows after the first year or two. It it a bit like buying a dropped domain, the most likely time to get an inquiry is soon after you buy it, when people are watching. After that things slow down to a more normal level.
For those hoping for things to pickup over time they are out of luck in my view, if they are not profitable now they never will be.
The new DNS landers have filtered out many India, and nonsense offers as mentioned above even for .com, all across the board.
I still get them… 🙁
i have dropped about 1000 ngtlds so far ,not one nibble .
have my domains with sedo uni epik and my own site .
Dont know how you can get so many inquiries ,im lucky i get 3 per year .
Sold Blockchain.life for $81.
Yup, the new gTLD garbage is done.