ZebraDomain.com

I decided to take a look at 10 big companies around the word and checked when they initially bought their domains (and when they should expire, not that I would count on your chances of grabbing one… well maybe in the case of GM). All the data was collected using domaintools WHOIS.

Microsoft.com

Created: 1991-05-02

Expires: 2014-05-03

IBM.com

Created: 1986-03-19

Expires: 2018-03-20

GM.com

Created: 1992-01-16

Expires: 2011-01-17 (if they are lucky)

Apple.com

Created: 1987-02-19

Expires: 2011-02-20

CNN.com

Created: 1993-09-22

Expires: 2018-09-21

Google.com

Created: 1997-09-15

Expires: 2011-09-14

Nike.com

Created: 1995-03-04

Expires: 2011-03-05

Coca-Cola.com

Created: 1994-10-14

Expires: 2013-10-13

Mercedes.com

Created: 1995-03-04

Expires: 2010-03-05

Pioneerelectronics.com

Created: 1996-08-09

Expires: 2012-08-08

In the past 6 or so years the global domain name market has more than tripled in size, from around 50 million registered domains by the end of 2002 to over 177 million in late 2008. Howevr the crisis affecting .

While .com was, is and probably will stay for years to come the dominant TLD (with about 50% of the total domain market in late 2008), other TLDs (both local TLDs and generic) have become increasingly more common.

When we look at the numbers we can see the global economic crisis reflected in the domain market. If in 2007 the total number of .com grew from about 58 million to over 70 million (an increase of about 12 million), in 2008 the total number of .com domains grew from 71 million to 78 million (about 7 million). 2009 so far seems even bleaker with a total of just over 80 million in the beginning of May (a total increase of only 1.5 million).

Other gTLDs such as .net and .org also slewed down their growth during 2008 and 2009. When we look at .mobi (the mobile gTLD) we see an even grimmer picture. The .mobi gTLD grew from about 450,000 total domains in April 2007 to a maximum of over 950,000 in October 2008. However since than the total number of domains actually decreased to about 830,000 in May 2009.

When it comes to ccTLDs .cn (China) is defiantly the hottest name to look for. During 2007 the total number of .cn domains (including .com.cn, .net.cn, .edu.cn etc.) grew from a about 1.8 million to an unbelievable 9 million. In 2008 .cn continued to grow but in a slower rate (from about 10 million to 13.5 million domains). However 2009 seem to hit the .cn pretty hard with an actual decrease in the total number of .cn domains (from a maximum of just over 14 million in February to 13.5 million in April).

So what can we learn from all of this? The sad and rather unsurprising truth is that the domain market was hit by the economic crisis. The more shocking news is how deep the domain market was affected. The drop in .mobi domains might not be a surprise (many experts have been asking whether this TLD is doomed) but the drop in the .cn is unprecedented and even it could be explained as a result of several factors it is clear that the status of the world economy had much to do with it. If the economic situation will not improve in the next few months we might actually see a drop in the total number of .com domains.

One last point. When looking at the internet as a whole (not just domain names but actual new websites) things look pretty much the same with a 50% drop in the number of new websites.

Some good general internet statistics could be found on hosterstats. .cn specific statistics can be found here. We shall keep tracking this topic for changes over the next months.

As we shall do here on a regular basis I decided to to have a quick look at some of the recent domain names sold online. This week I will have a look at 13 domain names sold and published (May, 1, 2009) on Sedo.com.

1. Studentprogram.com – $2466
2. Roller-hockey.com – $666
3. Worldtravler.net – $1416
4. Pana.ma – $5000
5. Ixpo.ca – 529 £
6. Allocated.com – $1212
7. Gbs.com – $25,800
8. Slowcookrecipes.co.uk – $700
9. Nexteer.com – $3500
10. Point-g.info – 2500 EUR
11. Tutoweb.com – 1000 EUR
12. Croydon.co.ik – 9000 £
13. Grunder.de – 8400 EUR

First of all we can see that only 6 our of the 13 have .com TLDs. It will be interesting to see how this will evolve over time, but good .com domain names are already pretty hard to come by. When we examine the list more carefully we can see a few interesting points. Pana.ma was sold for $5000. Interestingly I was unable to find any info on this Moroccan TLD (no WHOis info of any sort). 

GBS.com is a different story. First registered back in 1993 this is a 3 latter .com domain and its no surprise it reached almost $26k. This domain went through a lot since it was originally registered. According to Wayback Machine in the late 1990’s this was home for a computer consulting firm (called Graphical Business Systems) which than changed hands (or name) and became Green Bridge Station and finally a website for an autoimmune disease called gbs (Guillain-Barré syndrome). Apart from the history lesson we can see that a good short domain name can easily be used for any number of different websites (and different topics) and the more obvious point: a 3 latter .com domain name will probably never be cheap.

Last but not least a few words on Point-g.info. This adult domain name was sold for an extremely impressive 2500 EUR (around $3300). Why do I even bother mentioning this domain? well, two reasons actually: 1. it has a hyphen (which typically go against what most experts will tell you when it comes to buying domain names). 2. the TLD is .info – typically a fairly low value for money TLD (I have a personal story to tell about Google and .info domains but lets leave it for another post). What can we learn from this purchase – I honestly can’t reach any conclusions but I will love to hear your input.