Edwin

All figures below are taken from the raw data on Domain Name Sales Prices from DomainPrices.co.uk

2006
Sales: 407
Total value: £748,393
Average sale price: £1838.80

2005
Sales: 261
Total value: £583,468
Average sale price: £2,235.51

2004
Sales: 59
Total value: £286,781
Average sale price: £4,860.69

There is a very clear, healthy growth trend both in the number of sales and in the total sale value. The sharp drop from 2004 to 2005 in average sale price most likely reflects the fact that only very "forward-thinking" companies/individuals were buying domains publicly on the aftermarket back then and they were willing to spend whatever it took to bring in the goodies.

Remember also that the above is only the visible tip of a much larger iceberg, as the majority of sales go unreported. Assuming that a (very conservative) 20% of all domain name transfers were due to DRS, internal company changes etc. then Nominet's own stats still point to there having been over 37,000 domains sold in 2006.

Customer Service (foot of page)

Their total number of transfers for 2006: 46,763
Conservative 80% sales: 37,410

If we assume that public and private sales average about the same amount in quantity, that means that the total .co.uk sales industry turnover last year was £68,789,508.

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Memorable Domains: Over 2,000 generic .co.uk domains for sale

rob

I would say 20% is very very very conservative you just have to think of deals conducted via Acorn which never get published

Generally domainprices is the sedo public list plus a few odds and sods.

interesting figures all the same

diablo

Great idea to try and put even a rough figure on the UK domain market Edwin.

The £68 million total is assuming an average sale price of £1838.80 across the board when most domain names change hands for much less than this so I would estimate the actual total to be much less than this. Exactly how much less I'm not sure, but at a guess the year's turnover is more likely between £3 million and £5 million.

Edwin

Actually, I'm guessing the opposite. It's almost inconceivable to think of a situation where a large corporate buyer would be willing to let the price they paid for a desirable generic be widely known - so I suspect there will be a lot of very high-figure transactions buried in the invisible part of the sales iceberg.

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Memorable Domains: Over 2,000 generic .co.uk domains for sale

diablo

Yes you are probably right. How many high figure sales would you guess at then and at what average value so we can include it in our calculations?

yesterday

well I know of a £30k sale and a £4k sale and a £800 sale.

Those skew it to: £1910

yesterday

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interim manager. A site about personal debts at personal debts. A site about ski holiday offers.

rob

For sales over £5k unreported that I am aware of - off the top of my head:

2006 - ~£90k total on 8 names
2007 - ~£115k total 5 names

There is a fair turn around of sub £5k sales going on especially domainer to domainer. Very hard to track under £1k sales as they dont often get mentioned unless its XXXX XXXXX getting blinding .co.uk for 10p

LeeOwen

I don't bother revealing my sales anymore, people don't believe when I post anyway so I keep them to myself.

Edwin

Sedo have standing instructions not to disclose any of mine.

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Memorable Domains: Over 2,000 generic .co.uk domains for sale

pred

Interesting post, cheers Edwin.
Obviously only a fraction of the sales that do happen like you say get reported .
It's the same in all extensions.
Seen a couple of country .com's change recently, no idea on sales though. They could have been right up there with the biggest ever & we would never know.
Sure it is the same for .co.uk relatively speaking. The big companies will almost always keep quiet.
Pred

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cheers
Guy