Although the Corona Virus began to spread around the country of China late last year, it’s only become a major issue globally over the past month or two. This virus has forced people to remain quarantined inside their homes with brick-and-mortar businesses closed and entire nations going into lock-down mode. With all of that in mind, how has the domain industry been directly affected? On one hand people might think with everyone being at home right now it practically ensures they will have enough time to sit and read their sales pitch email and hopefully buy the domain name they’ve been trying to sell for the past several months. On the other hand, business has stopped completely in some industries and the last thing many people do during an economic crises is spend more money. In this post I’ll discuss whether the Corona Virus has been good or bad for the domain industry, and then back that up with some sales figures.
First, let’s dig a bit deeper into this virus and whether or not it’s been good for domain investors. Corona Virus was traced back to China with early cases being reported in late 2019. The virus slowly spread throughout the country and by late February to early-March had made it’s way into almost every country on the planet. The best way to stop the virus and prevent the spread was to close businesses and schools while waiting for it to pass. Anytime one economy slows down it can be a bad sign for people selling products within that economy. When it’s dozens of economies slowing down (which is the case for Corona Virus), it can obviously cause that same issue, only across several different economies. That basically means the Corona Virus would probably NOT be something good for domain investors. To get a better understanding as to why, let’s take a quick economics lesson. Domain investors buy domain names with the hopes they will be able to sell them for more than what they purchased them for. In order to sell a domain you need buyers, and people need to have money to buy things. When economies take a hit, times are usually not good. Businesses shutting down means people lose their job. Other people see those people losing their jobs and begin to worry about how secure their own job is. This forces people in both classes (those who still have a job and those who don’t) to begin conserving money and not spending it on things they don’t really need. Except things have been a little different with Corona Virus. Economies have taken a hit and businesses have needed to close doors, but not because they don’t have any money. In fact, several economies were doing well (the United States economy was at an all-time high) before the Corona Virus hit. Economies got a little shaken up with the Corona Virus spread, but most businesses still have plenty of money and it hasn’t really prevented them from buying domain names.
We can see some evidence of that when looking at NameBio domain sales. In the past month there have been 10,032 reported domain sales across all extensions and marketplaces. In 2019 there were a total of 108,391 domain sales for the year across all extensions and marketplaces. That averages out to a little under 10,000 domain sales per month which tells me sales during the past month have actually been higher than the monthly average last year. Even if we look over the past 3 months, we see a total of 28,520 domain sales. That also comes out to a little under 10,000 sales per month, which the past month numbers outperform. The data leads me to believe that if global economies were taking a hit because of something financial-related, people probably wouldn’t be spending much which is what basic economics tells us. However, since this was health-related most businesses weren’t in financial trouble before it hit. That means they’re still spending money even though employees are working from home, being furloughed, or just being let go completely.
