Domain news roundup – August 8, 2023

Welcome to the latest edition of our recurring domain industry news roundup! Find out what has been happening in the domain industry in the past two weeks and stay up to date with the latest news.

Top domain sales – August 4, 2023

The highest-grossing domain sales from the last week of July 2023 surprisingly show a new gTLD and a ccTLD on top. Grossing respectively $110.000 and €85.000, BC.xyz and Buy.es entered at the top of the list – pushing the first .com entry on this list to a mere third place. This week was a good one for ccTLDs in general, with two .ai domains and one .de ranking as well. You can consult the full list of the highest-grossing domain sales at DNJournal.

GoDaddy and Tucows report on Q2 earnings

GoDaddy and Tucows have each released their quarterly financial reports for the second quarter of 2023. AI tools made up an important part of the quarter’s activities for GoDaddy, with the company focusing on bringing the power of generative AI both to SMBs and larger resellers. Meanwhile, Tucows reports that their financial results have stabilized post-pandemic, with a standout role for their telecommunications software platform Wavelo.

Escrow Q2 report: the .ai boom is in full force

Escrow.com has also released a Q2 report for 2023, which contains some interesting data for domain investors. Among other findings, the report shows a steep increase in the value of .ai domains, with .ai domain sales at Escrow grossing a total of $1.800.000 in the past quarter.

Namecheap releases Q2 report of most registered domain names

Namecheap has released its semi-annual Domain Insights & Trends report of first and second quarters of 2023, featuring lots of interesting data about domains. Almost 40% of domains registered at Namecheap during this timeframe are .coms. .xyz, .shop, .click, and .online complete the top five. Further down the top 20, you can encounter ccTLDs like .co, .io, and – of course – .ai. 

Interestingly, .info is the most registered domain extension at Namecheap within the continent of South America, with this TLD ranking only in 10th place overall. Out of the new gTLDs launched this year, .zip has performed best at Namecheap with over 2.200 registrations. Consult the full report for more interesting insights.

WordPress offers 1 million free domain transfers to customers at Google Domains

After the announcement that Google Domains was bought by Squarespace for $ 180,000, WordPress is back in the game with an exclusive deal for domain owners who have registered their domain(s) with Google Domains. The company is offering the foot the bill for up to 1 million domain transfers from Google Domains to WordPress, plus a free year of renewal for each transferred domain. According to Andrew Allemann at DomainNameWire, this may end up costing WordPress up to $ 10,000.000, depending on the particular domain names that will be transferred to them.

Check back in two weeks for the next roundup of domain industry news!