In my opinion we are because quite frankly, all of the signs are there. Over the past couple of years, numerics have significantly outperformed other domain categories. Demand from Asia played the most important role by far, there’s no question about that.
I’m not going to resort to technical analysis, nor will I bore you with too much information. For the most part, identifying a bubble is not exactly rocket science. All you have to do is take a step back and ask yourself if the situation you’re seeing makes sense.
NNN dot coms did *very* well, fair enough.
I “get” NNN dot coms and understand why.
NNNN dot coms also did *very* well, I can kind of understand this as well but to be honest, am not too excited about these from a brandability perspective. At least not enough to justify their recent performance. While I “get” NNN dot coms, the same thing cannot be said about NNNN dot coms. Again, at least not enough to justify their recent performance.
But nowadays, it seems even NNNNN dot coms are starting to get attention.
Five numbers.
Five!
The high prices of NNNN dot coms were somewhat of a warning signal but the fact that even five number dot coms are starting to receive attention should make it crystal clear that we’re dealing with a bubble.
Will prices go down?
I don’t know.
Will prices go up?
I don’t know.
You see, identifying a bubble isn’t all that hard but determining what’s going to happen next week or next month isn’t as easy. I didn’t write this post with the intention of telling you to sell your numerics, keep what you have or buy more. The responsibility of making that decision lies exclusively on your shoulders.
Maybe numerics will continue to outperform almost everything else, maybe they won’t.
I’m simply trying to explain that there are more than enough arguments in favor of the fact that we’re dealing with a bubble. Nothing more, nothing less. How you interpret this situation is entirely up to you.
May 6th, 2014 at 3:41 pm
I agree 100%.
May 6th, 2014 at 3:42 pm
Are We in a Numeric Domain Bubble? Yes, 100%.
May 6th, 2014 at 4:07 pm
The bubble is one sided, the money is coming out of asia, and into north america.
May 6th, 2014 at 9:19 pm
Yes. Bubble will burst.. Nothing can go up for ever.
May 7th, 2014 at 1:44 am
I have just one NNNN and without fail every day receive at least two purchase inquiries from buyers in China with offers low to mid 4 figures, even though I have had whois privacy on the domain for over two years.
I don’t this easing off anytime soon – China’s population is 1.35 billion and close to 600 million are Internet users.
If you’ve missed this article The Secret Messages Inside Chinese URLs it’s definitely worth a read:
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117608/chinese-number-websites-secret-meaning-urls
May 7th, 2014 at 3:59 am
I think this bubble will survive and numeric DN may become mainstream because of its international appeal, brandability and easy to remember qualities.
May 7th, 2014 at 4:57 am
If it is a bubble, it’s only teh beginning. It is simple supply and demand. There are more than 5 billion people who would LOVE to own a premium numeric, whether it is 2 number or 6 numbers. But there is an extremely limited supply. In fact there are only 1,000 NNN.com, and 10,000 NNNN.com. LLL.com domains have traded at wholesale as high as $50,000 for years now and there are 16,676 of those available. That is more than all of the NN.com and NNNN.com combined.
May 7th, 2014 at 3:42 pm
@Rosener,
I believe the author indicated that he gets the N, NN, NNN, even NNNN, but NNNNN, the latest rage, he has problems with.
Also with numbers, I can’t name any business in the United States that operates with numeric domains, they may exist but I just don’t recall one now.
Finally, the logic of numbers can’t be linear, for example,
102030.com should be easier to remember than 7359.com