With Spaceship’s SellerHub growing every day, we thought we’d examine the history of domaining. What lessons can we learn from four decades of buying and selling domains?
1985: The very first .com, symbolics .com, was registered. The DNS system made the previous numbers-based system more memorable. At the time, registering a domain was free, and no one could know its potential.
Early to mid-1990s: Start of the .com boom. Interest in registering domains spiked as more people saw their potential. Generic words, like “loans” or “travel” were seen as particularly valuable. Quickly, domains became Internet real estate. whisky .com was one of the domains claimed for free. It would sell in 2014 for $3.1 million.
1995: Domains were monetized for the first time. It was now around $50 a year for a domain. This change cemented their potential as a commodity – a definitive sign for business-savvy folks that there was money to be made.
Late 1990s: The .com boom was in full swing. Around 1997, more established secondary marketplaces began to appear, replacing what had previously been a more informal reselling market where domains were bought and sold by email.
1999: A seminal moment for domaining, as business .com sold for $7.5 million. The Los Angeles Times noted that “selling names for $1 million is going to be an everyday event…”
Early 2000s: Domaining became mainstream. No longer a hobbyist pastime, it was a full-blown industry. Domain parking became common practice – a way of monetizing naturally high-traffic domains using ads.
2005: Marchex bought the entire portfolio of domainer Yun Ye for a jaw-dropping $164 million. At one time, the portfolio was reported to generate $280 million in ad revenue. Eventually, changes in search engine operation cut this kind of ad revenue potential, leading domainers like Marchex to exit the market. They resold their portfolio in 2015 for just $28 million. The lesson was clear: The domain market must adapt like any other.
Early 2010s: The introduction of General TLDs created a whole new market, with some selling for significant sums. Over a thousand new domains (including .app, .tech, .io) came to prominence. While this flooded the market with more “virtual plots”, prices remained buoyant, showing demand drives value, not just supply.
Mid 2010s: Around 2015-16, there was an increase in “brandable” domain marketplaces, catering to a wave of startups seeking short, catchy names (rather than English words), like Instagram and Etsy. It was a different game from hunting the million-dollar generics, but a viable new money-making strategy.
2015: Chinese investors entered the market in a big way. They traded domains like stocks, causing prices to surge. They particularly valued short “CHIP” domains (ones that didn’t include vowels or the letter V). Prices for 4-letter .coms, previously costing $100 or less, shot up to thousands of dollars. Sales of number-based .coms also surged.
The 2020s and beyond: Domaining continues to evolve today. There are undoubtedly more changes on the horizon. But what lessons can we take from four decades of domaining?
Decide on your method: History is bursting with examples of successful domainers with very different approaches. Some sell a few domains for seven-figure figures, while others get smaller (but more regular) profits from turning over thousands of lower-value domains. Pick the route that’s right for you, or combine both!
