OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
There is a lot of talk about the recent launch of .App domains by Google.
It seems a bit ironic to me that there is so much optimism for the .app new extension. Apps are more like competitors to domain names and websites!
Some will say that apps are sometimes complimentary to websites or the other way around. But most apps don’t need a website, meaning that app users don’t need a website and almost never visit the app website except only if we are talking about Facebook, Google or maybe Twitter. But all these app/website combos don’t have the term “app” in their domain name.
What most app websites are used for are for development updates, release info, support, company info and inquiries etc. Almost no one has a major interest in this sort of stuff so it is not something you want to invest in by buying a good domain name. A bad .com will do the job and so will a good or bad .app domain.
.App domains are for dreamers
.App domains are simply for dreamers. Not domain name investor dreamers but for the ones that dream of someday building an app. These are the ones that were probably too late buying their dream ******app.com domain name, that don’t want to pay the “expensive” $2,500 price tag for the .com, that will almost never build this dream app and ultimately will not pay $50,000 to buy a *****.app domain name just because it is the talk of the town for these 3 months.
.App is not different except for Google but that will wear off
No, sorry. .App is not going to revolutionize the internet with its unique security or revitalize the New gTLD aftermarket. New gTLD sales have been in a decline in the past 1-2 years. There have been a couple of outliers but these are not enough to reverse the trend. Good left-right combos have been and will be much better sellers than *****.app domains.
Most apps make little to zero money. And people in the US have almost stopped downloading new apps. They already have more that what they need or use. Don’t expect app owners to pay you big money for your .app domain. If you are satisfied getting $1,000 for your $200+ investment (if you are lucky to sell your domain in the first year) then sure. .App is perfect for you. But I am personally not working on these margins with this level of risk. Risk is the acquisition and renewal cost.
No, .app is not any different than the other New gTLDs except that it is run by Google. But the hype will settle down when people realize that Google will not build their dream app for them and make them rich.
Sell
In my humble opinion the right time to sell .app domains is NOW. While the hype is still alive. Of course a lot of people like to hold domains for many years. This is what I do. This is another reason that I didn’t buy .app domains. I am not a flipper. If you have 10 very good .app domains and you can afford to hold then hold. But if I got a 5 figure offer at this time for my mediocre or bad .app domains (that is 99,9%+ of all .app) I would sell immediately.
No, I don’t believe in .app in terms of domain name investing potential. Of course it will have good registration numbers. (Today .app has almost 200,000 registered domains.) People want to keep their app names registered defensively or like to keep their dreams alive. And there are a lot of smaller apps. $20 per year for a dream is nothing. This is how most of the domain name registrations are renewed each year. And apps were the hype dream for the past few years before crypto came along.
Of course there will be a few .app sales but please stop buying idiotic 2 word .app domain names. But there are very few good .app domains.
There have been about 10 *****app.*** domain name 5-figure sales. Odds are that you will not be rich selling .app domains.
A few final comments
.App is not exactly a “generic” New gTLD in the sense that .web will be. What you register must be describe something that can be an app that someone will have a use for. For example buying diamondring.app doesn’t make any sense to me. Maybe the domain owner can prove me wrong but come on people… The domain name diamondringapp.com is free to register as we speak.
BTW the value of ****app.com domains is not going down. It is going up with people that only know apps, now know .app domains, will learn about domain names and will soon try to buy the matching .com domain. Value will probably increase just slightly but more sales are coming. Then if an app is successful people will look to drop the “app” altogether and that is when the party begins.
No, .app is not the new .mobi. .Mobi was way worse and does not mean anything. It is like comparing .online and .onl. Yes, .onl does exist! If I see .app domains selling for 6 figures and being bought by domainers then can talk again…
.App has/had upfront fees, premium renewals and an SSL requirement that add an extra hurdle to everyone. At the moment you can’t park a .app domain but you can forward it to a secure marketplace.
I will finish with some stats from Namebio and Sold.Domains.
Number of *****app.*** domains to have sold for 6 figures: 0.
Number of app.*** domains to have sold for 5 figures: 6
app.net 70,000 USD 2017-12-14 Sedo
app.me 50,000 USD 2012-03-31 GoDaddy
app.market 35,000 USD 2016-06-21 Rightside
app.link 30,000 USD 2016-04-07 Uniregistry
app.nl 23,125 USD 2014-12-03 Sedo
app.co 20,000 USD 2018-04-27 Sedo
Number of *****app.*** domains to have sold for 5 figures: 10 (or maybe less depending on how you count them).
The 2 highest keywordAPP.*** sales are probably as good as you can get:
socialapp.com 25,000 USD 2017-11-27 GoDaddy
cloudapp.com 24,000 USD 2012-03-14 GoDaddy (and cloudapp.com sold again for just 12,600 USD in 2013)
Number of *****app.*** domains to have sold ever: 602 (most are .com)
Average price of sold *****app.*** domains: $1,719
Percentage of *****app.*** domains to have sold for 4 figures or less: 97.34%
Number of *****app.*** domains with ***** being 2 words to have sold for more than $2,410: 5.
App.***** (new gtlds) to have ever sold:
| app.market | $35,000 | 2017-04-04 | Rightside |
|---|---|---|---|
| app.link | $30,000 | 2016-04-07 | Uniregistry |
| app.london | $525 | 2015-07-30 | Registry Auction |
| app.life | $1,310 | 2015-06-23 | Sedo |
| app.top | $7,500 | 2015-01-05 | Com.top |
| app.reviews | $1,525 | 2014-06-18 | Go Daddy |
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I find them rather app.auling.
Good word-hack 😀
Konstantinos- I am with you! I posted this on another blog a few days ago:
People lost money with .XYZ when Google launched abc.xyz
I guess now Google is trying to push .app? Not surprised!
A bunch of people will loose money with Google’s cr.app 🙂
I will go back 9-10 years ago back when .mobi and .tel launched. I bought a few of each and ended up break-even.
I am probably 1 of the few people on this PLANET that sold a .TEL for 4 figures. Luckily that 1 sale paid for the “mistake”.
Break-even is LOOSING to me, so I will let you guys learn with .app 🙂
Everyday companies are re-branding from .IO, .CO, etc because they realize the value of the .COM, or they couldn’t aheam “afford” the .COM but are upgrading to another .COM brand.
So for all investors that are buying .APP I have a question: Do you want to get rich quick??; or dominate and succeed for sure?
Thank you,
Alex Verdea
Yeah I see what you mean. But then one onders if google wants to keep dominating the internet by preffering ssl sites. And wether bringing theirs online is part of that grand plan. previously, my investments in new Gtld’s did go beyond a total of $2000. I learn’t a lot of lessons when I brew up $6000 on .la
But .app is truely all a dream. I picked up prepagos.app (prepagos in a term used in spanish speaking countries for prostitutes) giros.app (services like western union or remittence money platform is a giro) and recargas.app (something like cellphone credit) for regular pricing 4 days after opening day. All with normal renew prices. I am thinking that one could have a dream of introducing the above services in an app environment. It would make great marketing. But again its all a dream.
How is .web different that .net? .net’s are dropping like flies, we are going to see the same idiots pay thousands to register .web’s, that have .net sitting unregistered, same with apps, man I wish these clowns would put some offers on decent domains.
It is not different. I don’t like .net and won’t like .web but it will do ok.
Google is the only company in the business using the term “squatter”:
“The point of the early access and premium prices is to help prevent squatting. If you really want a name, you can get it. If all prices were low, then all the good ones would instantly be snatched up by squatters as soon as they became available, and then you’d have to turn around and pay much more to a squatter to get a good one. The high prices keep the squatters out, as it’s simply too costly to acquire all the good ones up-front in hopes of being able to re-sell enough of them at a profit to make that all back.”
Yeah ok. Just say we (Google) want to make the money instead of the domain investors. People will end up paying more in the long run.
Thing is many domainers are paying the high premium renewals meant to keep them out.
I am seeing many of these people say wordapp.com is garbage, and word.app is the holy grail, I don’t get their thought process, but it shows how brainwashed they are.
It’s like 2014 all over again.
Which .net domains are dropping like flies? Probably the garbage ones, just like .com domains that drop all the time.
Equating .net to .app is a LOL moment.
@AaronStrong So you are not squatting on Cryptos.app and plan on developing the domain for yourself? 😉
:)..of course I am not squatting…I am investing, just as a real estate investor does not squat when selling to a building developer..BTW the quote went on to use the comparison of a ticket scalper…Shame on Google.
Speaking of lol moments, DomainKing.app 🙂
What is he going to do with that???
He’s going to use it to tell Google to stick it app their ass.
Probably do nothing with it. Only protecting his trademark.
@AaronStrong LOL
I don’t think google has a clue what the are doing with this, it seems a very low importance project that has been handed to inexperienced people.
I’d expect hardly any promotion beyond the short term. They’ve already missed the app peak by 2-3 years.
Yeah, Google did take too long to launch .App
Kosta I’ll bet dinner at next namescon or whatever it’s called now I sell more $$ worth of my dot apps in the next 8 months than you sell of your dot coms 🙂
If the wager is on post here. All sales must be posted public for everyone to see. Dream on! :$
I don’t do wagers but let’s see what happens. In 8 months and then in 3 years.
BTW I will probably make more $ in 2018 selling .org than you selling .app.
Lol I wouldn’t be surprised 🙂
Pretty spot on analysis.
I picked up only about 5 .app domains — and no high ticket items. And only because they will be developed into apps.
Will there be some high sales in the aftermarket? We may see some in the immediate future, and we’ll see some other high sales, if someone luckily registered some ___ .app name that becomes the name of a wildly popular app in the future — but then the developers always can opt for get___.com
I still like the extension more than 99% of others that were launched.
I believe .app, .club serve a purpose, and I’m on the fence with .web. Initially I thought it would be a viable alternative to .net or even .com with certain uses, but now I’m not sure.
I read on one of the forums that people are getting high offers for some of their .app domains.
a) True
b) False
c) Fake News
d) Well, kinda
Which sites list .app sales? Does Namebio have the.app extension in its database? Asking for an app 🙂
>> Apps are more like competitors to domain names and websites!
no longer is that the case, as technology has been constantly evolving
first there were only desktop computers, with software applications installed locally from disk
then the internet arrived with simple web 1.0 sites and downloadable desktop software applications
then web 2.0 brought slightly more sophisticated web applications that were browser-based, but installlable desktop software applications were still very much needed
next came web-capable phones and mobile-optimized websites
and finally smart phones came into existence, which briefly reintroduced the concept of downloading software applications (apps) not to desktops, but to mobiles devices
however, with the advancement the web has made, not to mention the advent of “cloud” computing, the downloading/installation of software applications is one again becoming unnecessary
the eventual dominance of browser-based web applications was briefly delayed by iOS/android apps, but “apps” are once again returning to the web, thus making them indistinguishable from websites
the progressive web app functionality google’s pushing, which effectively turns any website into an app-like experience, is where this is all headed
the word app is basically redundant at this point given any website can be a highly-interactive (app-like) experience
thus apps are not competitors to domain names and websites, in fact all websites/apps will of course require a great domain name
google’s obvious play with .app is to retain as much relevance in the ecosystem as possible, long after the app stores are made irrelevant by the web
but for now at least, .com will remain the standard for websites and web applications
>> .app is not any different than the other New gTLDs except that it is run by Google.
agreed, and given google already controls search, mail, browsing, etc for many people, why further empower their monopolistic goals by buying into the .app hype
>> People want to keep their app names registered defensively
agreed, i reg’d three .app domains as defense for my matching .com names
>> please stop buying idiotic 2 word .app domain names
agreed, it’s painful watching domainers reg two-word .app domains as “investments”
and even if i were to develop a keyword.app domain, i’d also want the matching keywordapp.com, since 99.9% of internet users aren’t familiar with .app
>> if an app is successful people will look to drop the “app” altogether and that is when the party begins.
the term app is so redundant, hence historically poor sales of keywordapp.com domains
IMO keyword.com and possibly keywordkeyword.com beat keyword.app/.io/etc
personally, i’d rather acquire a keyword.com that uses one of the many potential suffixes like -ed, -ing, -able, -ify, -less, etc than use a keyword.app
>> .App has/had upfront fees, premium renewals and an SSL requirement that add an extra hurdle to everyone
and not every website has sensitive content, or requires interactivity worthy of SSL
more reasons .com has always been and likely always will be the preferred tld
do i think .app will be relevant? actually yes, it’ll most likely dethrone .io/.co/etc as the new preferred alternative to .com (with .org remaining the preferred alternative for suitable orgs)
does that make .app a good “investment” for domainers? it’s hard to say, but given sales of keyword.io recently, i’d expect the best keyword.app domains to start selling in the aftermarket for similar prices
IMO if you have a premium keyword.app, flip it fast before the premium renewal adds up
if you have a non-premium keyword.app with regular renewal, hold for a few years to get $xxxx, then flip if no takers
if you have a keywordkeyword.app, my advice would be to turn off autorenew 🙂
cheers
I would agree, there is a small number of “premium” generic .APP domains that could be re-sold, while everything else is case-specific domain registration. There is no real opportunity for domainers who want to invest in a large portfolio with .APP domain.
.App reminds me of the .mobile Same sort hype who all remembers flowers.mobile Ouch Ouch Ouch. dont think be buying .app Stick to buying what you know best.
It was .mobi. Even worse!
Why would you incorporate .mobi and .app, when these two are two different animals: for God snake!
Maybe the valuable .app names will be the persons/companies that purchased:
Build.app, Design.app, Create.app, Develop.app (the pickets and shovels sellers, not the domain sellers) — targeted market: those who purchased keyword .app domains and decide to just get them developed
Have to admit — I tried to get some of those ___ .app names, but they were long gone — and my intention was to build .app domains, with my dev team.
But I assume Google will create an ecosystem: register, build, design, market your .app domains
So which is more valuable?
Cryptoapp.com or Crypto.app
Cloudapp.com or Cloud.app
Walletapp.com or Wallet.app
Camapp.com or Cam.app
Officeapp.com or Office.app
Casinoapp.com or Casino.app
Curious to see the .app aftermarket sales over the next few weeks.
None of these is very valuable.
Good evening.
I know this material is very dated now. I cannot find any current articles. I have noticed many name brand .app domains are taken. Household names like Ford, Chevy and BMW. Is there any potential with Name brand .apps in the future? I have found several company name .apps within certain industries available in the $15 range
Thank you,.
You should NOT register any TM domain names.
I think you guys are looking at Google intentions with .app all wrong. You’re looking at it from web 2.0 optics. Google is setting up for web 4.0 and they’re not making money from selling domains. Google will make all their money from data collected deep inside the machines and devices, not some .app website (like idtapthat.app, a social dating app for players,) but I digress. Apple has been doing this for a while now, Google is just catching up.