UK domain market

charlie · Nov 10, 2004

keys said:
I would be interested to hear from sellers or buyers, with answers to these questions:

What do you think of current services which list .uk domains for sale?

Which features are important to you?

Keys,
I find the UK domain market a bit of a lottery when it comes to selling. I think perhaps the nominet system has something to do with it and the fact that there aren’t really that many players.

Comparatively the US/.com market and perhaps the German market seem to be well organised and a large number of registers. The number of names taken and offered seems to level out the market and you can kind of judge the value of your domain name more easily. Of course you will always get a name that appeals to a focused buyer but the general market is far more stable.

Percentage wise the UK domain market seems to have a certain number of players who hold a large number of key domains. they all seem to be holding out for the focused buyer and so the movement in the market is very small with 'holders' all generally going for the same valued domain names.
I don’t totally blame these 'holders', I would tell anyone that if you want a domain name and the one you want to 'gone' offer them what you think its worth and if not register something else like 'google' etc.

I think in order to make UK market more accessible the whole population needs to catch up and get involved. with more players buyers have the option to go else where for similar names. With the breakthrough in broadband perhaps this will happen - people don’t what to be [email protected] when the could be [email protected]. Currently i don’t think there are enough buyers and the 'sitters' (no offence anyone) are waiting for the population to become educated.

keys · Nov 10, 2004

Some useful observations Charlie.

I would agree that a few bodies hold a substantial proportion of prime domains in the the UK. Although prices quoted are often way beyond what buyers will pay there are opportunities and sales happening.

A few US players have moved in on the UK market, which they regard as almost virgin territory compared with the .com world. Sales to "end users" seem to be growing in frequency and value, as are deals between sellers. I was tempted to buy fiction.co.uk when the price suddenly dropped from £10k to £2k, but it is now marked as sold on the website.

arceyedesign · Nov 11, 2004

think your right about our US friends entering the uk market
there was even an article on sedo which may boost .co.uk as a reputable domain

this is the firt uk forum i have found with some decent posts and more than 6 members. im a member at namepros (aka neo3media)

sedo has seen some ok .co.uk sales and i would like to see more but its hard to find buyers

i worry sometime me emails come across as spam!!!

ant