This expired .ME domain is seeing a lot of bidding activity over at Park.io

Root.me domain auction

Lately ccTLDs have been seen impressive bidding wars on expired domain auction sites like Park.io. Over the course of 2020 both .IO and .CO saw strong interest with many one-word domains selling in the the four figure range at auction. While .GG and .VC tend to show up on the list they rarely take the top spot and .ME is there every once and a while but not often.

So I was surprised to see a .ME domain, Root(.)me break past $2,000 in bidding at Park.io and as of me writing this it currently sits at $2,550:

Root.me domain auction

I first started investing in .CO and .ME domains in 2010, back then these two ccTLDs found themselves as the most likely choice for startups that couldn’t get the .COM or .NET. This was also when .NET started to slip and options beyond the big three (com/net/org) became a real thing.

While I feel like I hear about .IO and .CO every day, I haven’t seen .ME as frequently as I did…but auctions like these make me wonder if it’s coming back in style, especially as more .IO and .CO names are taken and the prices keep going up.

Both Root(.)io and Root(.)co are taken but undeveloped and Root(.)com is owned by a company called Root Advisors who I’m guessing wouldn’t be very interested in parting with the name. Looking at past sales data the highest reported sale for a Root(.)something is Root(.)global which sold for $7,800 back in 2014.

For those who remember back to 2011, .ME had a major blockbuster sale, also for a four character word, Meet(.)me which went for $450,000. Fun fact about that sale, the domain was jointly owned between Michael Berkens, Rick Schwartz, and Ammar Kubba.

This sale, while almost ten years ago, definitely proved that there are buyers that will pay mid six-figures for a .ME domain. Now, with bidding activity heating up in the aftermarket it will be interesting to see if demand for .ME increases, and with it – prices. The same happened to .IO and .CO over the last few years, and it could be happening right now with .ME.

We’ll see, if there’s one thing that is certain about the domain world it’s that things can and do change all the time. Keeping an eye on trends and getting in early, and with strong domains, leads to sales like Mike, Rick and Ammar did nine year ago…

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton