.App domains

The two 5-figure .APP domain name sales on Namebio never happened

I checked to see what .app domain name sales are listed on Namebio.com and I found 4 sales all from June 2018.

.App domains launched about 2 months ago. .App entered general availability on May 8.

I did a fast check to see if these have sold and I from what I see the domains host.app ($14,162) and rn.app ($15,000) have not been sold. The other 2 domains probably did sell. GDPR and whois masking is making things a lot more difficult these days.

The 2 5-figure domains have not been updated since the “purchase date” and are also still for sale at Sedo. Sedo does remove domains from listings after these have sold. The domain rn.app is for sale for $37,500 and host.app is open to offers at Sedo. So these were almost definitely not sold.

These domains were not in any of the Sedo weekly sales reports so my guess is that these prices were taken (by Namebio) from Sedo auctions where the buyers never paid. (Or something worse.)

Since 2014 I am running Sold.Domains that lists New gTLDs domain sales only. I too am having trouble on what sales to report and when. I am not tracking Sedo auctions because that is inaccurate as many auctions are not paid for. But I am tracking the Sedo sales RSS feed that reports true sales.

Just to be clear, I don’t blame Namebio here. I am sure that I too have listed some questionable sales in the past few years. I have talked about some of them, including the .xyz sales.

I have removed a few which I was sure were not real. So Namebio will probably check these 2 “sales” and they will probably remove them too.

I am also thinking of removing all .top sales as a lot of these are questioned by many people. I also don’t appreciate the amount of comment spam I am receiving from the .top registry that make the whole registry feel fishy. And the .top extension is a spam and abuse haven if you haven’t heard and its registry allows that to continue.

Finally, I have to say that the window of opportunity for making some nice .app sales is slowly closing.

People should have taken advantage of the initial .app hype but I haven’t seen much action. I heard about the gay.app sale but nothing was confirmed.

A 5-figure outlier will no doubt exist in the future but the lack of consistent 4-figure sales in not a good sign for the overall investment potential of .app.

.App is doing good for Google as the extension now has 276,869 registered domains but not doing good for domain investors. Let’s see how many .app domains will be registered in 2 years from now. My guess is there will less than today.

I have talked about .app domains: I said that .app is for dreamers.

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.

16 comments

  1. Konstantinos,

    I am the owner of RN.app.

    Unfortunately, the winner of the auction backed out and never paid.

    I had to put the name back on the market.

    Sincerely,

    Michel

  2. BTW:

    Congrats on your website: very informative!

    Michel

  3. Konstantinos I have been working on this for a week, and I could not believe Sedo would not actually confirm they didn’t happen.

    I discussed it with Michael Sumner to remove last week and I was waiting for Sedo to get back to me again.

  4. I don’t think the window is closing on .app domains for end-users to buy them. The window is wide open IMO.
    Most end-users still do not realise that .app domains exist yet, but they will.

    Also, domain Investors are not trying to flip .app domains like they do other domain extensions, like .io .me .tv .co
    Not yet anyway.

  5. Originally when Raymond brought this to my attention there was only circumstantial evidence that the auctions didn’t complete, and Sedo wouldn’t confirm one way or another. Based on their response it seemed like someone had purchased privacy, and that’s why Sedo wouldn’t comment and why the auctions weren’t included in their weekly report.

    But after digging through Sedo’s policies it appears that you can’t request or buy privacy on a public auction. They get reported no matter what as long as they are $2k+. This is not the case at a venue like Flippa where you can buy privacy on a public auction to keep it out of the feed.

    So the fact that they weren’t included in Sedo’s report is proof that they didn’t complete, as privacy wasn’t an option for these auctions. The two records are now removed.

    Thanks for all the hard work and follow-up from you and Raymond.

    • FYI,

      I have kept all emails that I received from Sedo that the buyer had backed out. They provided me with a copy of the contract and his name, address and email address. I was told that I had all the necessary info to pursue a legal venue for breach of contract. My understanding is that the buyer was going to get a slap on his wrist from Sedo! In other words, Sedo is NOT interested in legal venues!

      Maybe Google and Godaddy should, asthis fake auction has diminished the value of the .app, IMHO. I just couldn’t afford a lawsuit as the buyer is in NY and I’m in Texas. Vultures would have had a lunch with both of us, meaning in legal fees!

      • I have had over 100 not paying buyers at Sedo over the years. Sedo never did anything. They only want to protect their ass and do nothing else.
        Now I just don’t use Sedo. Bad company.

  6. Host.app has sold reported by Sedo 12,000 Euros.

  7. Sedo is a good platform but I don’t see it as their fault for none paying buyers…

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