Flippa Reports $2,15 Million in Domain Name Sales in 2014
Flippa has just released its 2014 Year in Review report.Domain name sales add up to a total of $2,15 million, a 50 percent increase from 2013’s slate.
According to a blog post , Flippa announced that it is now one of the top five marketplaces.
You can read the blog post after the jump :
“It’s been 13 months since Flippa’s Domains division officially put itself on the map. The new kid on the block at last year’s Namescon, people were curious. We commonly heard things like, “I know you’re #1 for buying and selling websites, but I didn’t know you sold domains, too!”
A strong foundation in place, we knew there was a massive demand to build a new, improved side of our marketplace for the savvy domain buyers, sellers and investors at work. This transformation, still very much in progress, has already allowed for recognition as a Top 5 Domain Marketplace.
2014 Year in Review for Flippa Domains
Flippa Crowd Appraisals
We established an Appraisal Service in order to foster community involvement, and help those newer to the domaining world ascertain what “the crowd” would think their asset was worth. This was an interesting experiment, met with a lot of excitement (and a bit of criticism that we will be addressing). All in all, involvement is strong and we’re finding that on the whole, appraisers’ feedback is valuable to participants.
Post Auction Negotiation
We solved an interesting issue that Flippa domain buyers and sellers both shared: auctions that ended unsuccessfully but still had two parties keen on closing a deal. By introducing Post Auction Negotiation, a seller could take an unsold auction and pitch his or her Buy It Now price to still-interested buyers and watchers of that auction. Conversely, bidders who had not hit the reserve or who had missed the end of the auction could step-in post auction to pitch their best offer. This tool was implemented across the entire Flippa marketplace and stands as one of the most successful changes we made in 2014.
Domain Catalog
While we lowered our standard auction listing fee to $9, there were many large portfolio holders that lacked the budget to bring hundreds, if not thousands, of domains to market at that clip – let alone possess the time it would take to do so. So we built the Domain Catalog which allowed domainers of all stripes to upload their inventory on an offer/counter-offer/Buy-Now basis — with no upfront cost.
Flippa Exclusives
Building up our Premium Domain brand was a major goal of 2014. Flippa Exclusives were just that: they signified the arrival of Premium domain names that could only be acquired — exclusively — on the Flippa platform. Some of our most successful sales in 2014 were Exclusive to Flippa, forging lasting partnerships with premium domain buyers and sellers along the way.
By The Numbers
In a whole, we had an incredible first year “on record.” Beginning with less than 850 open auctions, our domains platform found itself accommodating over a quarter million by year’s end. We reached $2.15 million in gross sales, a 50% increase from 2013′s slate. Buyer and seller engagement shot through the roof. And that’s not even considering what’s coming next…
A Look Ahead
Faster + Easier Listing Process for Domain Auctions
Have you gone through the process of launching a domain auction and thought, “Man, this could be faster / better / smoother!” We read you loud and clear, and will be unveiling a brand new listing process that will be as easy as “1-2-3 Launch!” Keep an eye on our blog and newsletter for updates and official release of this in the coming days.
Domain Brokerage
We just this past month officially began our new Domain Brokerage wing, led by senior broker Ali Zandi. En route to the official rollout, drop a line with questions — or to get involved! — to domains [at]flippa[dotcom].
Portfolio Section (soon to be formerly known as Domain Catalog)
On the non-auction side of the coin, thousands of domains are being added daily to the Domain Catalog — now home to nearly 450,000 domains. But since you and every domainer reading this possess a “portfolio” and not a “catalog” of domain inventory, we will soon be re-branding this as the new and improved Flippa Domains Portfolio section. Look forward to new ways to manage your domain inventory, including Bulk Upload and Edit capabilities, enhanced push to auction, and improved metrics to help you close more deals. Stay tuned for more info on this in the coming months.
Marketplace Integrity
On the heels of an absolutely game-changing year in customer engagement led by our growing Customer Success and Marketplace Integrity teams, we have broken ground on improvements — site wide — with bidder verification and new tools to counteract fraudulent bidders and buyers.”
