In 2020, there has been a distinct lack of publicly disclosed seven-figure domain sales. In 2019, NameBio lists six sales in the $1 million and up category, with a further two names selling between $900,000 and $1 million.
This year NameBio lists NAS.com at $720,000 as the largest sale.
You’ll notice that in the first line of this article, I wrote that there’s a distinct lack of publicly disclosed seven-figure sales. There are numerous high value sales going on behind the scenes that cannot be revealed to the public.
This is either because of an NDA, an informal agreement between the parties involved, or the buyer or seller just doesn’t want to draw attention to the fact that they’ve either spent or received a seven-figure fee.
In this mini-series, I’m looking at a few different possible seven-figure (or higher) sales that happened in 2020, and the evidence to suggest the sales price.
88.com
The first name is actually one that alledgedly sold for an eight-figure fee. The domain, 88.com, a two-number .COM and possibly the most valuable of them all. In China, 88 is a symbol of fortune and good luck, with the number 8 considered to be the luckiest in Chinese culture.
That’s why names such as 588.com previously sold for $1 million, and someone paid $150,000 for 88888888.com (that’s eight eight’s).
The 88.com domain certainly looks to have sold this year – eName broker Ivy Wang confirmed that eName, a popular Chinese registrar and marketplace, sold the name with the announcement made in August 2020:
eName brokerage team sold https://t.co/fHpZKxwRhl to the Perfect World. Congrats on buyer! Wish this project a great success! pic.twitter.com/FYCMUBAQG4
— Ivy@eName.com (@IvyWang16753599) August 13, 2020
This was backed up by a post on eName’s website (the article is in Mandarin). At the time, Chinese investor Yue Dai, who owns around sixteen two-letter .COM’s, estimated that the name sold for $50 million.
The name is now used as an email service launched by Perfect World, a multi-billion dollar company based in Beijing.
Based on the sales history of domains containing “88”, plus the fact that two-number .COM’s are considered to be seven-figure assets in general, this would certainly be a mammoth sale. It could even break the record that Voice.com ($30 million) set as the world’s largest domain sale.
Unfortunately, a sales price hasn’t been confirmed, so it cannot be charted.
LT.com
Another short domain that was acquired by an end user. I reported the sale of LT.com in September after the name moved ownership.
The domain was sold by Telepathy Inc, a domain portfolio company owned and operated by Nat Cohen, who values his collection of domains highly. In the past, for example, he’s sold names such as OFO.com for seven-figures, and DCC.com for $198,000.
LT.com was acquired by LeTou, a global gaming brand that operates predominantly in the Asian market.
Two-letter .COM domains in general have a high value thanks to their scarcity and numerous potential uses. We know for a fact that LT.com sold for a seven-figure fee as the broker in the transaction, George Hong of GUTA, tweeted to confirm this:
Just sold https://t.co/JOW2OKYEsC for seven figures. Congrats to buyer and seller! @domainarts
— George Hong (@DomainMaster) September 9, 2020
No specific price has been revealed, however, so the name cannot be charted.
Uno.com
Another sale I covered is that of Uno.com, which was sold by Hostgator founder Brent Oxley. The domain was acquired by an unknown entity, but I had confirmation from Brent that this name sold for a seven-figure fee.
Brent confirmed to me that the name sold “on a long-term finance deal,” possibly signifying that this is a name that is being paid for in installments over an extended period of time.
While the name has been confirmed as being sold for a seven-figure fee, we can’t chart this domain firstly because further details, such as the exact sales price, haven’t been revealed. Secondly, even if we did know the sales price, the long-term finance deal would mean that the name would only have charted at DNJournal once the name had been paid for in full.
Stay tuned for the second part of this mini-series.
