I think that its warming up the same way that peace is warming up between Russia and Ukraine.
Its been a long cold war... and no sight of winter ending at all. The best names get ridiculous offers, if at all.
Unless some miracle happens or some dramatic change in marketing it - I think .us is doomed. I surely hope I am wrong
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I appreciate your input Yong! When it comes to "winter ending" for any extension, do you find it better to go by sales price or sales volume? Here is why I ask...
You're completely right about ridiculous offers. According to NameBio, only 3 of the last 25 .US sales were for more than $795 ($1250, $1821 and $3088). Yet, also according to NameBio, over the past 3 months there have been more .US sales reported than all but two of the five extensions they have listed under "Popular ccTLDs" (only .IO and .AI have had more). In fact, the 176 reported .US sales in the last three months is more than any other ccTLD I checked (co.uk, es, fr, eu, gr, de, nl, no, se, tv, to) and more than a couple of the common gTLDs (xyz & info).. 176 reported sales for the past three months and the extension has had a total of 334 over the past year. That means over half of the reported .US sales over the past year have now come in the past three months.
The more I look at these prices and venues, it seems a lot of these buys are most likely investors. Of the last 25 .US sales: ten came from GoDaddy, six came from Dynadot, three came from Sav, two came from Catched, two came from Afternic, one came from Sedo, and one came from Docky.
Are sales numbers up for .US? I think the answer is Yes. Especially over the past 3 months.. However, these appear to be mostly investor buys and not end user buys. So, what could be causing this increased investor activity? Plain old speculation? Is there something other people know that I don't? Are we in the very early days of something good for .US? Personally, I have no idea.
I find it interesting that we've seen a similar type of spike (only in much bigger numbers) with the .AI extension this year. NameBio shows 1,743 sales for .AI the past year. Almost half of those (810) have been in the past three months alone. Of those 810, almost half (314) have come in the past week alone. The only other ccTLD I've seen with more reported sales over the past three months is the .IO extension, but it's numbers aren't at all similar like the AI/US ones somewhat are. Any correlation here? Who knows and it's probably a stretch...
Maybe it's just speculation causing these investors to pay an average of $732 for 176 .US domains over the past three months, or maybe it's something else. But, it does seem like .US sales have been higher lately (volume wise, not necessarily price wise) and it's investors whom are doing the buying. If you spend some time browsing ccTLDs on NameBio you'll probably find that isn't something you see happening with a lot of extensions right now, unless it AI or IO. Why .US? A ccTLD with requirements at that! If you have any decent .US names you're wanting to clear out and willing to take a wholesale price for, make sure to list them on GoDaddy/Dynadot at the least - you might get a sale!
Keep in mind, I'm simply sharing what I have personally found doing NameBio research. I'm not trying to tell anyone to run out and start buying .US domains or anything like that.