In the June edition of the Sedo Sales Roundup, I’m taking a look at a handful of sales that closed via the Sedo platform in June 2021. I’m looking at the sales of eCommerce.de, B.et, NFT3.com, Yamini.com, and Stake.co.uk.
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eCommerce.de – $184,250
The sale of eCommerce.de for $184,250 ranks as Sedo’s fourth-largest publicly-disclosed domain sale of 2021 so far. It’s also the eighth-largest .DE sale of all time, according to data from NameBio.
The eCommerce industry, referring to Internet commerce, is the buying and selling of goods online. It’s a huge business sector dominated by the likes of Amazon. According to Statista, over two billion people purchased goods or services online in 2020, with e-retail sales surpassing $4.2 trillion in that year alone.
It stands to reason, then, that an exact-match eCommerce domain will have value. While an ambitious e-retail store isn’t going to brand itself on an exact-match domain such as eCommerce.de, it does have its uses.
As of writing, eCommerce.de hosts a default “coming soon” hosting page, but I believe that I have identified the buyer based on some research that I’ve performed.
All data that I’ve reviewed points me towards Nicklas Spelmeyer, founder of Spelly Trade GmbH, a German company that operates a number of eCommerce businesses. In particular, it seems that Spelly Trade offers coaching on FBA (fulfilled by Amazon) businesses. His company also owns e-Commerce.de.
While there’s currently no website hosted at eCommerce.de, the domain name would fit well into the company’s portfolio. As a category-defining domain name, it will likely play a huge strategic part in Spelly Trade’s business.
B.et – $100,000
The .ET extension is the ccTLD for Ethiopia, but that certainly doesn’t mean that the buyer of B.et is an Ethiopian company. While the buyer of a .DE domain will usually point to a German buyer, the buyer of B.et acquired the name because it’s a domain hack. A domain hack combines the SLD and the TLD to create a word or phrase. For example, Phra.se would be a domain hack, as would Doma.in.
B.et is, of course, the domain hack for “bet,” a common word in the lucrative gambling industry. Betting domain names can be valuable properties. Domains such as eBet.com, GoBet.com, BettingOdds.com, and BettingTips.com have all sold for six- and seven-figures each, with more sales happening behind the scenes. Betting domains can attain these sales prices, and more, thanks to the opportunities that these domain names can bring. The right company acquiring a premium a six- or seven-figure betting domain can turn their investment into a profitable betting business extremely quickly.
The B.et domain was acquired by BET Ltd, a British betting company that previously operated on Bet.me. The name has already been put to work, hosting a version of the company’s existing website. Will B.et replace Bet.me as the company’s official site?
Does the $100,000 sale of B.et mean that all .ET domains are now valuable? No. Data from NameBio shows just twenty-four .ET sales, with the majority of those being domain hack sales. Speaking of domain hacks, the seller of B.et was DomainHacks.com, a company that owns a portfolio of domain hacks that includes D.na, Intern.et, and Clu.bs. This company has previously sold names such as Wall.et for $45,650.
NFT3.com – $50,000
Without NFTs, this sale certainly wouldn’t have happened. Although it’s still in its infancy, the world of NFTs, Non Fungible Tokens, has created a lucrative market for digital art and even memes. Domains such as Candy.com and Lazy.com have become hosts for NFT projects, and NFT-related domains have been trending. The sale of NFT3.com is the largest LLLN (three letters followed by a number) domain sale of all time, according to NameBio. It beats the previous incumbent Pay4.com ($25,089) by some way.
LLLN pattern domain sales seem to be few and far between, meaning that these are unlikely to be lucrative investments. The buyer of NFT3.com is unknown, but the domain’s WHOIS listing shows the name is registered to someone in China.
Yamini.com – $50,000
Yamini is a popular Hindu/Sanskrit name. It’s the second month in a row that I’ve featured a first-name .COM sale in my Sedo sales roundup, after Sergei.com sold for $33,000 last month.
Yamini.com looks to have been sold by someone from China who held the name for over ten years, if I’m reading the WHOIS history correctly. The buyer of Yamini.com was Yamini Rangan, the Chief Customer Officer for HubSpot. Rangan has been recognized as one of the most influential women in business by the San Francisco Business Times, and has previously worked for notable companies such as Dropbox.
Rangan is using Yamini.com as a personal homepage.
Stake.co.uk – $49,264
Stake.co.uk for $49,264 is the largest .CO.UK domain sale of 2021, according to NameBio. NameBio also lists the name as being the seventh-largest .CO.UK sale of the past five years. The domain was acquired by Medium Rare N.V, a Curaçao-registered company that operates Stake, a crypto casino and sportsbook. It looks like Stake is about to launch in the UK.
Since .CO.UK is the most popular extension for companies looking to make a name as a local UK brand, owning Stake.co.uk will allow the company to confidently launch its new UK platform.