Indian Domain Sales Roundup

It has been a while since our last sales roundup.  There were a few larger sales, as well as a steady flow of smaller sales.  Compared to the battering that many other domain extensions have taken, .in seems to be holding up reasonably well in these difficult economic times.

The highest sale was RedTube.in, which sold for 2,000 Eur or about $2,605.

There were a couple of other four figure sales – Sridhar.in named a price of $1,000 and a quality .co.in WebsiteDesign.co.in went for $1,000.

Other .in sales included Stellenangebote.in, which closed at $220, Memory.in, which recalled 380 Eur or about $495, BuyComputer.in, which booted up $60, InternetVideo.in, which streamed $270, Lecturer.in, which instructed $60 and MotherNature.in, which harvested $110.

There were several LLL.in sales.  The best one was EBA.in which was bid up to $650 in intense last minute bidding.  OBF.in sold for $70, XIO.in went for $100, HGD.in closed at $70, OCW.in took $80, FBN.in commanded $80, and OBV.in sold for 290 Eur or about $378.

There were also some decent .co.in sales.  In addition to WebsiteDesign.co.in which we previously mentioned, ILoveIndia.co.in sold for $250 and Webmail.co.in delivered $560.  TravelGuides.co.in sold for $250 in a private sale.

There are a couple of upcoming auctions for Indian domains on Sedo:  RentApartment.in and BadGirl.in.

INForum continues to grow – we have now surpassed 10,000 posts!  There are lots of interesting discussions going on, so if you haven’t been there for a while, make sure to pop in for a visit.


Be Like Rick – Latona is Buying Premium .In Domains

What does it mean to be like Rick? Rick Latona is one of the world’s most successful domainers.  In less than 5 years, he has managed to become the largest domain broker in the world, to become the largest domain pawnbroker in the world, to run successful live domain auctions and also to run a domain minisite development company.  He has created a large buzz in the domaining community (and even among some endusers) and won the 2008 domainer of the year award.  If there is one guy who knows about buying and selling domains, it’s Rick Latona.

So what is Rick buying now? Rick has recently joined INForum, the home of the Indian Domain Industry, and is buying any and all premium .in domains.  Rick says that he is looking for “premium category killer names with reasonable prices.”  He is only looking for “truly great names that can have businesses put around them.”  He is looking for names that are in English.  He emphasizes that he doesn’t want nonsense, and doesn’t want people sending him names that aren’t fantastic.

If you have category killer .in domains, and are looking for some liquidity, you can send them to Rick for his consideration here.  PLEASE don’t send him junk.

And, you can be like Rick – and invest in Indian domains.  There are many good reasons why Indian domains are worth investing in and should do well.  I’ve been saying this for a long time, and it’s great that some of the most successful domainers are now entering the .in market.

You can learn more about investing in Indian domains by joining our forums, and at the upcoming TRAFFIC in Amsterdam.


List of Available LLL.in for Hand Registration

There are still a large number of LLL.in available for hand registration – 1,325 as of around noon Eastern today.  A member of our forums, CNN, has kindly posted a list of which ones are available here.

We have an entire forum dedicated to discussing LLL.in and LLL.co.in, and you can find answers to your questions about these short domains.  We also keep track of all reported sales of LLL.in for more than $100 which will help you evaluate the market.


The Latest Indian Domain Sales

Since our last sales report, there have been a few decent Indian domain sales.  The largest one is IKA.in, a great three letter domain beginning with “I” for India, for $1,500.  Trivandrum.in, the English version of Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala and with a population of about 750,000, sold for $1,000.

A number of smaller sales rounded up these larger ones.  Coconut.in ate $200.  FMX.in closed at $245 in heated bidding.  UIU.in sold for $70.

There are a few upcoming sales of Indian domains.  Stellenangebote.in, which appears to be a German term is on auction, as well as ILoveIndia.co.in (don’t we all?).

The Indian market continues to grow despite global economic turmoil.  INForum has now hit 2,000 members and continues to grow as does the interest in Indian domains.

As well, remember we are on Twitter at http://twitter.com/indian_domains/


Indian Domain Sales Report

It has been almost a month since our last Indian domain sales report due to the holiday season.  Sales during this period have been understandably slow.

The top spot on this report goes to Spot.in which closed Christmas Eve at 4,600 EUR or $6,060.

There were a couple of other four figure sales:  SecondHand.in traded for 1,500 EUR or $1,976 and MMORPG.in won $1,322 (interesting comparison – MMORPG.co.uk sold in October 2008 for 3,000 GBP).

Rounding things out were eBlog.in pinging $300, and a couple of successful LLL.in sales – a sweet LLL.in starting with “I” – IBN.in for $475 and MMO.in for 800 EUR or $1,054.

Currently there aren’t any auctions running at Sedo for Indian domains, so I may wait a fortnight before doing another domain sales report.


Indian Domains – English or Other Languages?

In India, people speak hundreds of languages.  Hindi has the largest number of native speakers, and there are also a large number of people whose native language is Bengali or Telugu.  So, what language Indian domains should you invest in?

In the foreseeable future, I believe that English is the answer.  English is one of the two co-official languages of India (the other being Hindi).  While only 250,000 people in India are native English speakers, about 90 million people speak English – more than in the United Kingdom.  And it’s not just any 90 million people, it is generally the best educated and wealthiest people, the professionals, the businessmen and the government workers.  These are the people who use the internet, and who buy on the internet.  Most government, university and large businesses are run in English, and normally the university and business websites don’t even have local language translations.

Recent developments have confirmed the predominance of English in India.  The Law Commission of India has rejected the use of Hindi in India’s courts.  They did this on the basis that English is and should be the common language that all lawyers and courts use and that it is important to keep it this way  The CEO of Rediff, a major Indian portal, has gone on record as stating that higher education in India, for example, is predominately in English and English is becoming an “aspirational” language in India.

There have been great pushes to use local languages in India.  However, despite this, the use of local languages on the Indian web has remained minimal.  A recent study showed that there were only 1,249 websites in India that use local languages.  As well, although NIXI has been a great proponent of IDNs, to date IDNs have not been released for .in domains and they have no plans to release them in the near future.  IDNs are essential to properly use Indian local languages.

From a domainer’s point of view, as after all bills can only be paid banking on what the reality is and not what the reality should be, virtually all of the reported sales of Indian domains are for English terms.

That being said, even native English speakers need to be careful.  One thing to keep in mind is that Indian English is somewhat different than both British English and American English.  There is also “Hinglish,” an interesting mixture of English and Hindi.

In the long run, all of the above is likely to change – but it will take many, many years.  The growth of the internet in India will eventually depend on the use of local languages.  IDNs will eventually be permitted in the .in extension.  There is certainly nothing wrong with purchasing prime Hindi or Telugu domains, and I have a few in my portfolio.  However, it’s important to realize that these domains are in fact a very long term investment.  In the current environment, and the environment over the next few years, India will be using primarily English domain names.


Indian Domain Sales Report

It has been a lot quieter this week after the two previous weeks chalked up a record number of Indian domain sales.

There were a couple of nice LLL.in that sold –Apm.in sold for $126 and Iis.in went for $218 – a real bargain given that it starts with a “ii”.

There were a few other sales. Farhhad.in sold for 132 Eur or $185. BlogPress.in wrote out 100 GBP or $155. IndiaOil.in drilled for 100 GBP or $155. Prompt.in went for $125.

We have also updated our complete list of Indian domain sales.

The year is starting to wind down and there are only a couple more upcoming auctions of Indian domains at Sedo: SecondHand.in and Eblog.in.


Sale of Webmaster.in Tops This Weeks Report

The highlight of this week’s Indian domain sales report is the sale of Webmaster.in at auction on Sedo for $2,050.  It’s obviously a great name and shows the potential that the Indian market holds, with a domain that has been registered for less than four years commanding a four figure price.

INForum member 23 has also recently completed two transactions.  Living in Kochi, 23 has purchased the domain Kochi.in from DemandMedia for $800.  This goes along nicely with Kochi.com, which 23 also owns.  23 also sold SexClubs.in through Sedo for 260 Euro.

LLL.in sales continued to be strong again this week.  There were three good sales of LLL.in that start with the letter “I” for India, which makes them particularly nice.  Inp.in went for $300 at Sedo.   Iyc.in sold for $350.  Isu.in sold for $103 at Sedo.

There were many other LLL.in sales this week.  These included Fce.in which went for $141, Ldb.in which sold for $113, Llp.in which went for $91, Dtb.in which sold for $126, Dpm.in which sold for $156, Crv.in which sold for $143,  Sik.in which sold for $142.

There were also a couple of nice NNN.in sales – 747.in sold at Sedo for $111 and 024.in sold for $70.

Finally, Bunnies.in hopped to close at 80 Eur or $102.

Upcoming auctions at Sedo include Apm.in, Fahrrad.in, BlogPress.in, IndiaOil.in, Prompt.in, and Iis.in.


Cheapest Indian Domain Registrars

Since the Indian domain space is so young, hand registering .in and .co.in domains is still a very viable and profitable strategy.  If you are going to register a significant number of domains, every Rupee counts.  It makes sense to find the cheapest registrar possible (as long as the service is good).

The registry charges registrars a wholesale rate of 500 Rs (approximately $9.92) for .in domains and 250 Rs (approximately $4.96) for .co.in and the other third level domains.

I’ve surveyed a number of Indian domain registrars.  The cheapest registrar I’ve found is Mitsu.in – which charges 589 Rs (approximately $11.69) for .in domains and 319 Rs (approximately $6.33) for .co.in.  Their reputation is that they have decent service.  Also, unlike most registrars, Mitsu.in price their domains in Rupees rather than Dollars, so if the Rupee continues to fall against the Dollar, their prices will become even more attractive.

If you know of any cheaper Indian domain registrars, please drop a note in the comments.


Weekly Sales Report of Indian Domains

The highlight of the week was a very large number of LLL.in sales, most of them premium LLL.in at very good prices.

There were many successful sales by INForum members:

Meditang sold the domain Kgb.in for $5,000 and another undisclosed LLL.in for $1,200.

Johnny sold Tpa.in for €1000 or about $1,300 to an enduser.  He also had another undisclosed LLL.in enduser sale for $1,800.  He successfully sold a number of LLL.in to other resellers, including Bpa.in for $135, Pcf.in for $100, Fbf.in for $65, Gcr.in for $62, and Mnf.in for $58.

There were also a lot of LLL.in on auction at Sedo this week:

Tss.in sold for $200.  Stp.in took home $330.  Rtn.in closed at $80.  Rsc.in ended at $80.  Ipc.in wound up at $205.  Mna.in sold for $80.  Hcm.in closed at $120.  I think that this shows the strength of the LLL.in market.

The numeric domain 688.in commanded $70.

iPromote.in ended at $550.

The rerun of the auction for Onion.in failed to meet reserve and did not sell.  I’m not sure what the highest bid was, but shortly before closing the bidding was only at 80 Euro.

Upcoming auctions of Indian domains at Sedo include:  Inp.in, Isu.in, 747.in, and Bunnies.in.