What is the value of the Penguin.com domain name? Animal .COM domain names can range in value from the low four-figure range ($1,000-$9,999) up to the seven-figure range.
Table of Contents
Why is Penguin.com valuable?
Why are animal .COM domains such as Penguin.com valuable? Well, let’s take Penguin.com as an example here. Penguin.com is one of just a concentrated number of exact match, animal .COM domain names that are in existence. There are over 134 million .COM domain names registered, which means Penguin.com and the other exact match animal .COM names represent a very tiny percentage of all .COM domains. Rarity makes Penguin.com a highly valuable name, especially to investors who pay top dollar to own the world’s rarest names.
There’s also the question of trust and stability. If you’re called Penguin, then you need to own Penguin.com for your brand. By owning Penguin.com, you are displaying a sense of trust to your customers or clients. As a consumer, would you trust Penguin.com or GetPenguin.com more? The right domain name gives an instant sense of trust in a brand to anyone who visits the domain. A sense of stability and permanence also comes from owning a domain name like Penguin.com. It shows a long term investment in a brand.
Unfortunately, animal names such as “Penguin” are popular brand names. Because they’re commonly used, instantly recognizable names, it makes the equivalent .COM (Penguin.com) valuable since so many companies are interested in using it. That makes it an expensive prospect for a brand to acquire.
An exact match domain name such as Penguin.com for a company called Penguin can also offer that company some security from data and traffic leakage that is commonplace amongst longer domain names.
These factors, and more, are why Penguin.com is a domain name that has retained its value for more than two decades. The factors listed above are fine in theory, but let’s take a look at some examples of animal .COM sales to back up the overall value of Penguin.com and animal .COM’s in general:
Case Studies
Real world usage of domain names is a key indicator of value, which is why we have put together a series of small case studies below. If several companies spend six or seven-figures on an animal .COM domain name, it demonstrates clearly that exact match animal .COM’s play an intrinsic value in the online brand of savvy businesses. Read our case studies:
1. Cat.com
Cat.com houses the worldwide homepage for the largest manufacturer of construction equipment in the world, with Wikipedia listing the company’s revenue as .5 billion in 2017. Caterpillar Inc, who also owns caterpillar.com, use “Cat” as one of their main brand names. According to DomainIQ’s WHOIS history, they’ve owned the domain since at least 2003 when DomainIQ’s records began. “Cat” is also the NYSE stock ticker symbol of the company.
2.Duck.com
For years, Google owned the Duck.com domain name after acquiring it in during the purchase of a company many years ago. Up until December 2018, Google redirected the domain to its search engine. That was until the domain was acquired by the rival search engine DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo now uses Duck.com to redirect visitors to its own search engine.
3. Gorilla.com
In October 2019, it was reported by DNJournal that the domain Gorilla.com had been sold by broker Monte Cahn (RightOfTheDot) for a total of 6,320. The name was acquired by a Russian online casino, and as of writing, the name is being used in conjunction with the brand’s online betting division.
These are just three examples of animal .COM domains that have been acquired and put to use by brands willing to invest significant amounts of money into their online identity.
Another means of getting a face-value appraisal for Penguin.com is to take a look at verified domain sales data.
Recent Sales
Below is a list of verified animal .COM domain sales from recent years. You can use this data to gauge the value of your own domain name:
Snake.com – $135,000 (2019)
Walrus.com – $55,000 (2018)
Gorilla.com – $496,320 (2019)
Bird.com – $200,000 (2005)
Pig.com – $125,000 (2010)
Coyote.com – $65,000 (2011)
Pug.com – $61,000 (2016)
Hornet.com – $60,000 (2017)
Further Reading
I wrote an article for NamePros in 2019 about how certain animal domain names are being used. You can read that here Some of the content here is quoted from that article.
Conclusions
Working out the intrinsic value of the Penguin.com domain name (without any attached content, IP or other considerations) is a difficult process. Automated appraisals cannot be relied upon, and ultimately it comes down to the circumstances surrounding the acquisition or sale of the domain (with associated factors including motivation to buy or sell, the need for the domain, funding available, and current circumstances).
However, it can be easily proven that domains such as Penguin.com are highly desirable, and previous sales data indicates that this type of name routinely sells for five ($xx,xxx) or six ($xxx,xxx) figures. In some cases, this will be higher.