lesurf

Hi All,

I've been looking at the sales of foreign domains to gauge what the likely demand will be in the future for fledgling extensions like .es and .be . German .de's are regularly featured on the dnjournal's sales page, I bet there were hardly any of those sold a few years ago....

Two questions for people to ponder or answer:

Has anyone seen or heard of any activity in European markets other than .co.uk and .de? Is there scope for secondary markets for .es, .be, .fr etc. I have seen bidding activity on sedo for .es but this could just be the usual cr*p timewasters.

I've got some really great Spanish names that are already getting good traffic as they are very generic. What are other people's experiences with regards traffic for foreign domains, any tips?

lesurf

lesurf

The first sale of a .es domain that I have seen publicised:

Coches-Ocasion.es €1,000 = $1,203

Means "used (2nd hand) cars" in English.

Anyone seen any others for .es, .be or .fr?

fredo

The problem with .fr is that it is not open yet to individuals, the landrush is planned for this summer. It is a market with a lot of potential.

I own some .es and received several offers on one, which I rejected because I think the value of this extension will grow. I guess it take 2 years after the landrush to see good sales for an extension (.eu might be an exception).

The .be registry has done some promotion and the .be was free end of last year. Now, all the 3 letters are taken and it is one of the top extensions in Europe. I would not invest in the .be as the market is quite limited (compared to .fr, .de, .es).

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lesurf

Another .es sale, this time on sedo:

matrimonio.es (marriage in english) - 3,499 EUROS

Also:

Bioesfera.es - 800 EUROS

Not sure on the translation. maybe biosphere?

sdsinc

Interesting topic.
IMHO it is best to stick with the TLDs of larger European countries.
.de is widely accepted within Germany and even prefered over .com.
.co.uk is well-established no questions about it

Problem is, millions of names have already been registered (4M+ for .co.uk & 9M+ for .de). Catching a drop is now the way to get decent names.
Another factor is that Germans are domain-savvy. When they have an idea in mind they register and there is a healthy aftermarket there.
The mentality is totally different to that of the French for instance.

I think .fr & .es have some good potential for the very next few years ahead. These are large countries with large markets. The TLDs have yet to mature and there are still opportunies. Strong generic keywords can still be had if you look hard but you have to patient and not expect a quick sale. I don't know too much about .es but the aftermarket in France is not very active. There is still a lack of awareness about the importance of domain names as a strategic business asset.

Agree with Fredo, .fr will not be hot until the rules on ownership are relaxed (which we hope will happen soon). The next landrush (after .eu) may be on the .fr TLD.

With .co.uk & .de ownership is not a problem and it must have something to do with their popularity. Only problem with .co.uk is that it's not speculation-friendly and the transfer procedures are a bit arcane so it's not worth selling unless the amount is at least in the 3-figure range.

There have been some .be sales but as far as I know transactions are seldom above the $$$ range.
I think .be & .nl are worth a look too (have a few in your portfolio).
For .es .fr I don't really know. Sales must be rare or confidential.

My 2¢

fredo

The French nic told me by email that the .fr will be open to individuals before the summer 2006. I sold few French keywords in .com and .org but the price was not very high.

__________________
EUdomains.org - The latest news about the .eu domain names
Mobidomains.co.uk - Click here to pre-register your .MOBI

sdsinc

Ya but it will still be restricted to French citizens/residents then ?
I also think the market for French names is not that strong. I seldom sell French names.
Often I think I would be better off developping them and keeping them to myself lol

fredo

Yes it will first be restricted to French citizens. The thing is that the extension is controled by a non-profit organisation and they want to protect the extension (rather than sell a high number of domains)...

__________________
EUdomains.org - The latest news about the .eu domain names
Mobidomains.co.uk - Click here to pre-register your .MOBI

lesurf

Hi5.es - $900 at Afternic.

Also of interest to those with .es domains:

Amistad.com
("friendship" in Spanish) $100,000

Well done to NameDrive on this one BTW

olebean

A couple of my european domains get reasonable traffic even with the english word attached..

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