TLD Investors, citing Namebio’s statistics, reported that the number of sales in country-code domains exceeded 120,000. These are only the deals reported on openly, while the real number is probably much higher. However, the statistics can give an idea of the value certain ccTLDs have in the eyes of investors.
As of the end of February, Namebio had information with 14 domains sold for $500,000 or more in ccTLDs and 3 domains sold for over $1 million in ccTLDs. In the top 50 deals, 11 domains were sold in the Great Britain’s ccTLD .UK, followed closely by Germany’s ccTLD .DE with 10 deals. .DE also currently holds the prize for the largest deal in ccTLDs: in 2008, kredit.de was purchased for $1,169,175. The second and third places are held by twin domains in the British ccTLD: cruises.co.uk and cruise.co.uk were also sold in 2008 for $1,099,798 each.
In is also noteworthy that the German ccTLD has maintained its leading position in the total number of transactions. However, this year the British Indian Ocean Territory’s ccTLD .IO has already taken the crown: in late February, 17,009 domains were sold in this zone, against 16,837 sales in .DE. The third place has been taken by Anguilla’s ccTLD .AI thanks to the enormous interest in the artificial intelligence technologies: 13,321 domains were sold in this zone.
