In the March edition of the Sedo sales roundup, I’m taking a look behind the numbers to see why five domain names sold for the prices they did at Sedo in March 2021.
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717.com – $101,000
Although this is a six-figure sale, it could be considered a low price for a three-number .COM. In 2015 and 2016, we routinely saw similar domain names selling for higher in the six-figure range, thanks to demand from Chinese domain investors.
In 2015 alone, 989.com sold for $818,181, 899.com sold for $801,000, 345.com sold for $800,000, and 588.com sold for $1 million. In comparison, $101,000 for 717.com seems like a bargain.
The domain was acquired by someone from China, although I’m not sure of the buyer’s identity at the moment. Numeric domains, in particular, have been sold off recently as many investors are looking to cryptocurrency for greater returns.
UM.co – $65,817
After selling Kitchen.co for €70,000 last month, Sedo is back again with another strong .CO sale. This time, the marketplace is back with the sale of UM.co.
According to WHOIS, the domain was sold by Sedo on behalf of the owner of a portfolio that contains tens of premium and short .CO domain names in particular.
The buyer of UM.co was UberMedia, a company that specializes in aggregating mobile location data.
It seems like UberMedia may be rebranding to UM, based on an internal UberMedia.com page that I found. As of writing, UberMedia is not using UM.co to host a website, but the company is already using the domain for email.
Swap.io – $50,000
The .IO extension is hot. We’ve recently seen Metaverse.io sell for $175,000, and Trade.io reportedly sold for $88,000. Behind those two sales is now Swap.io at $50,000. This is the largest publicly-disclosed .IO sale that Sedo has handled to date.
Swap.io was acquired by a new venture in the cryptocurrency space. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that both the .IO and the cryptocurrency markets are hot at the moment — usage of .IO within the cryptocurrency community is rife.
According to Archive.org, Swap.io was parked at Sedo at the end of last year, which likely informed the buyer that the domain name was available for sale.
Germanium.com – $45,000
Germanium is a chemical element, according to Google. It doesn’t seem like a word that is used as a brand name very often. In fact, LinkedIn only shows 17 company results for “germanium.” Despite this, Germanium.com sold for $45,000.
The domain was acquired by German company Osmium Institut GmbH. Osmium, coincidentally, is another chemical element. Naturally, Osmium Institut does own Osmium.com.
Osmium Institut was created to “ensure a standardized trade with crystallized Osmium,” according to the company’s website. The company likely acquired the domain name to set up a similar venture or organization to standardize the trade of germanium, which has uses within fiber optics, infrared optics, and LEDs, according to Wikipedia.
PPE.us – $20,000
I’ve highlighted this domain name to show the power of an exact-match domain and the power of product popularity. PPE, Personal Protective Equipment, is a term that has become commonly used thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Google Trends backs this up with data showing a spike in PPE-related searches in April 2020, just as most of the world was struggling to contain COVID-19.
Although .US is the ccTLD for the United States, adoption isn’t wide at all, with most U.S. businesses opting for .COM instead.
NameBio shows the largest .US domain sale as Video.us, which sold for $75,000 in 2007. PPE.us ranks as the third-largest .US sale of the past five years behind Live.us ($26,000) and Cash.us ($20,100).
PPE.us was acquired by iPromo LLC, a company that offers promotional products for businesses.
During the pandemic, iPromo has pivoted to supply PPE to health professionals under the brand name iHealth. The company has acquired PPE.us to highlight its PPE products. As of writing, PPE.us redirects visitors to iPromo’s PPE page. I can’t imagine that PPE.us gets much type-in traffic, so I would expect iPromo to develop this domain name and take advantage of the search traffic for PPE.
If you’re interested in selling a domain name, Sedo is taking applications for its upcoming Great Domains auction (April 15-22, 2021).
Thanks for sharing. Some great sales.
717 went too low IMO and the buyer got a great deal.