Namebio.com like DNJournal.com is an excellent resource for checking everyday domain name sales. In this report, I have analyzed the top 100 domain name sales for the year 2020 as shown by Namebio.com. I have analyzed the data by visiting individually the top 100 domain names. I checked if these domains are developed or not. What type of business category is used by the domain if the website is operational. And, other interesting stats.
Here is a list of categories that I have given to domain names that were developed. For domains that were not developed, I have given them the NA status. Though the domain name is quite understandable for what it may be used. For example – Bullish.com reportedly sold for $1080000 but when I visited the website it shows no active website. So, I have to mark it as NA. Though it’s clearly a financial term and most likely be used for financial websites.
Anyway, without further commentary – here are the results by category:
| Business Category | USD Amount |
| NA – WEBSITE is not ready | 8,516,857.00 |
| communication | 1,073,025.00 |
| financial | 1,028,069.00 |
| software & IT | 942,551.00 |
| realestate | 420,000.00 |
| gaming | 415,000.00 |
| Learning | 400,000.00 |
| lifestyle | 345,050.00 |
| Content | 280,500.00 |
| automotive | 279,999.00 |
| Drinks | 260,497.00 |
| management | 237,381.00 |
| ecommerce | 227,499.00 |
| medical | 161,183.00 |
| artificial intelligence | 107,495.00 |
| political | 103,000.00 |
| coaching | 100,000.00 |
| Organic | 80,000.00 |
| travel | 77,000.00 |
| Total | 15,055,106.00 |
as you can see from above, communication, financial, and IT & software were the top categories I have found in my analysis. For the communication category, I have chosen Engage.com, Abby.com, Live.Chat and Newz.com and for IT&Software I selected based on the website data – results.com, shop.app, prove.com. download.it, kiru.com, koles.com, and chauffage.fr. And, for the financial category domains such as zcg.com, lendable.com, almi.com, caretaker.com, vaninsurance.co.uk, vaninsurance.com, barri.com, heloc.com, fibr.com, lifeinsurance.com.au were taken
I have analyzed the domain name from other perspective also which consists of brandable and generic brand type. And, here are the results:
| Type of Name | USD Amount |
| brandable | 7,043,734.00 |
| generic | 4,288,267.00 |
| acronym | 3,154,805.00 |
| numeric | 498,250.00 |
| alphanumeric | 70,050.00 |
It’s clear from above that domains that can be used for a variety of purposes are a good investment. Though generic domain names also do good. But, it’s the brandable type of domain names that get sold for much higher values compare to other types of names. Most of the brandable names are English dictionary words like Engage, Palace, Bullish, Results, Kick, Prove, Profitable, Memento, Expert, Limit, etc. Which are great words. For generic I have included domains like boatforsale.com, electriccar.com, bath.com, bettingtips.com, wallpaper.com, vehicle.com, caretaker.com, etc. Which I think are generic in nature because of their limited use.
Another intersting analysis I did is to check the length of the domain name. And, to determine which length have made more dollars in the year 2020. Here.
| Length | USD Amount |
| 3 | 2,606,927.00 |
| 7 | 2,570,590.00 |
| 6 | 2,221,438.00 |
| 4 | 1,805,739.00 |
| 5 | 1,217,051.00 |
| 2 | 1,062,878.00 |
| 12 | 753,538.00 |
| 9 | 676,469.00 |
| 10 | 643,447.00 |
| 11 | 610,890.00 |
| 8 | 548,840.00 |
| 13 | 234,299.00 |
| 14 | 103,000.00 |
| Total | 15,055,106.00 |
Domain names consisting of acronyms have top the results in this case. Short domain names are always good in terms of investment. And, are consistent when it comes to results. The other in the list is domain names consisting of 7 character length. Which mostly were English based dictionary words.
Here is another set of data that I have been analyzed from a development point of view. We often think that most of the high-value domain name sales are meant for an end-user. But, think twice. It’s not always the case. I have found out that more than 50% of the domains which got sold in the year 2020 (top 100) are still not resolving. And, in fact, some of them are back to sales pages. This means they are available for sale. Some high-value sold domains still not developed includes Bullish.com, Nas.com, OA.com, BoatsforSale.com, and many others still undeveloped. So, it will be interesting to recheck at the end of 2021 to see if these domain names get develops or not.
From the above data, it’s quite clear that domain names that can be used for technology and financial-based businesses fetch great prices. Provided they are brandable and are English dictionary-based words. Along with these attributes, it should be short also preferably under 10 characters to be considered as a good brand for businesses to invest in.
Disclaimer: Above data is based on my own personal understanding which may not be completely true with how you see and analyze this data.