I don’t really get 6N .COMs

by Morgan on March 17, 2016

There have been a slew of high-priced 6N .COM sales over the last couple of quarters and I’ll be honest, I don’t really get it. Yes, I understand the value of numeric domains, and sure I agree a meaningful 3N and 4N .COM makes a lot of sense, and some 5N .COMs, but I do think a lot of these 6N .COMs are going for much higher than an investor would be able to sell later down the road.

6n-com

Right now there are 6N .COMs with starting bids north of $5,000 and yes, there are lots of nice repeating numbers but still, over time do we really think these will go up in value?

So is it just me or does the value of 6N .COMs seem a little strange right now? What do you think, comment and let your voice be heard!

{ 12 comments… add one }

Jijo Pappachan March 17, 2016, 9:08 pm

You agree these are traded as stocks and they go up in value over time JUST LIKE 5N.COMs DID.

Back when Ali Z. wrote about 6n.coms in NP many people ridiculed him. I went ahead and hand regged about 300 of them at 1 dollar each. I regret I didn’t do it in thousands. I was nervous as a newbie.

A lot of people said same thing about 5n.coms but they are trading at high XXXX now. This would go to XXXXX range and then the the neighboring category has to pick up, that is, 6n.coms. They got regged in anticipation of the same and are at XXX range now. That is how it works.

Any doubt on the length of the numbers? Have a look at the Chinese guy’s whois email and count the digits in them. 🙂

If anyone interested, give me some bulk deals. https://goo.gl/yWNvaJ

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Donny March 17, 2016, 11:34 pm

5n with out 0, 4 and one 8 your sitting at nearly 10k. Double 88 20k.

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Kassey Lee March 18, 2016, 12:31 am

Even some investors in China are giving the warning bells on the numeric domain name bubble. I just read one in Chinese: http://mt.sohu.com/20160312/n440178405.shtml. Basically, what he said is that for domain names to be sustainable, they must have value in being used for website development. Some numbers are known to Chinese people, such as 163(used to be the number to dial to get online) and 360(in all angles). They have value, but those that have no meanings can only be speculated, thus creating a bubble.

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karl March 18, 2016, 1:57 am

the bs on zero and 4 perpetuated by domainers have screwed up a lot of values and chip garbage along with it. look at all the sales with zero and 4 in them .

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Joseph Peterson March 18, 2016, 2:07 am

@Donny,

That may not be true in all cases. For instance, consider these recent NameJet sales:

92187.com $2400 3/11/16
79558.com $6720 2/21/16

$6.7k is “nearly 10k” if you add an extra 50%. But that $2.4k is much more recent. Clearly there’s a lot of variability in this asset class.

Will 6Ns appreciate in the future? What a question! “Down” doesn’t exist. China is King Midas. 17-digit domains are worth their weight in gold.

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M. Menius March 18, 2016, 8:13 am

I’m not knowledgeable of how the Chinese navigate the internet, but it is counter intuitive this registration of long numeric strings. Because numeric strings are difficult to remember, we have the domain “name” system to simply internet navigation – so someone can type in Hotels.com instead of 198.145.27.3. I admit there could be logic represented in Chinese numbers that I don’t understand. But on face, long number domains make no sense as convenient end user portals. I can barely remember my own phone number.

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Colin Campbell March 18, 2016, 8:38 am

Ultimately it all has to come down to brandability for entrepreneurs. Speculators need to think of the end user. In China it is common to see 3,4, even 5 numbers especially if numbers have some meaining. Numbers are preferred domains in a country where IDNs are essentially shunned.

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Donny March 18, 2016, 9:00 am

@Joesph

Yep that is true. You got to include a double repeating number for it to be in that range. And must end in an 8 cannot be in middle. Now if that started off with a 1 or 2 like 19558 or 29558 we could see 7-10 maybe not on NJ but on private sale. To many scenarios I guess. It is all pretty amazing but 5N or below is where I would stay. 6N to me is like a penny stock you can make a lot of money but man you better be able to dump those quickly if things turn.

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Joe March 18, 2016, 12:45 pm

Good question do you Morgan?

This remember that phrase of Jose Feliciano’s song “Que sera, Que Sera”.

It will be a strategy that managed to 6N with a value of $ interesting figure and know that it is easy to summarize, few prefixes, and telephone numbers of private companies have been copied to register many.

This is one reason whether to call as Example FM “Frequency Modulation” Radio 1000 times a day have 1000 click insured.

This is the matter of learning and being a professional “Strategy psychology keywords” and now numbers etc, .for to use in many online applications.

This is what we require me get alone with my experience in sales strategy, and advertising before, I apply it to Internet I get now in the US is an academic article, it hurts not having lived or been born in your country.

It is the fate of each of us in life, “we took birth written on our skin” this last write a paragraph of a letter from one of his songs my brother (RIP) who died 17 years ago.

Good weekend.

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Joseph Peterson March 18, 2016, 1:14 pm

@Donny,

Where the numerals appear matters, as you say. And, in fairness, 97088.com did sell for $22.5k in mid-February. So the price range goes as high as you say – even a bit higher.

@M. Menius,

Numerical domains serve a mnemonic function. That’s 1 reason why repetition is valuable; it makes the address catchy. Then there’s Chinese numerology – lucky “8”, unlucky “4”, etc. IP addresses are fairly arbitrary; but someone in China can control the string of numbers in a domain, getting something catchier or “luckier”.

A third reason for the popularity of numerical domains is that they’re sometimes a way of writing words and phrases, owing to similar pronunciation. China does this more than we do. But here’s an English example: “1i41i” = Revenge.

@Colin Campbell,

Numerical domains are used in China. That makes sense. What I’m skeptical about is the speculative way they’re traded, which has almost nothing to do with usage. Price points have surpassed the wholesale values tied to any real chance of retail, end-user flips. And the number of domains being registered in the past year far exceeds China’s capacity to absorb them as websites.

The only thing that has sustained market appreciation in this sector is a continual influx of new traders. But supply is growing faster than demand, even by that measure. As prices decline, recruiting more buyers becomes problematic.

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Morgan March 18, 2016, 6:52 pm

Thanks for sharing your feedback everyone, while I agree with @Jijo that numeric domains are being traded like stocks, I think of each category of numeric .COM (i.e. 4N, 5N, 6N) as a stock itself, and like the stock market, not all stocks go up in value over time.

I think it’s safe to say that 2N, 3N and most likely 4N .COMs will continue to go up in value but once you go above that I think it’s anyone’s guess since the data isn’t there yet.

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Joseph Peterson March 19, 2016, 2:20 am

@Morgan,

They’re trading like stocks … but in a company that doesn’t exist.

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