Where are we heading with NNNNN.coms

[DomainMagnate]

Yep many have dropped recently. I have a post on it here.
There will be many available soon, so if you want to buy some don't rush.

[Carter]

I've dropped 60+ NNNNN some days ago.

[angel69]

have you guys found whether other lesser known pkg services are more effective when parking NNNNN.com's (or any numerical domain for that matter) , ie the conventional wisdom that sedo & parked.com give most investors the best ROI may not necessarily apply to NNNNN's......

[hugegrowth]

I've been getting more traffic on my NNNNN.com's lately, all from Asia. It stopped for weeks, but since the last 7 days it's picked up again. All from Asia.

[DomainMagnate]

I had lots of traffic on mine from China etc, but it's simply not converting.

[Donald Aquilano]

I own only one at its a zip code in Virginia. Which would be good for a Realtor, insurance agent etc...

If there not a zip code and they have no premium numbers there worthless IMO

[rkbdomain]

Thought I would give a little update on what is going on with NNNNN.com's after the collapse of the buyout. Before the buyout, in January 2008 there were about 20,000 available NNNNN.com's. These then vanished over the period of a few weeks in a buying frenzy, as people expected the next LLLL.com rush to occur with NNNNN.com's. As the LLLL.com market fell apart, and the larger economy, so did the NNNNN.com market, and many people dropped their domains. But most people here probably know this history. The interesting thing I think is that there are only about 10,000 available NNNNN.com's now. I don't know what this means, part of this is people who participated in the buyout holding on to some of their NNNNN.com's probably, part of it is probably domains that were picked up in the first few months of '08 following the buyout and that have yet to expire, and part of it is probably just natural growth in domain registrations. I can only speak for myself, but I got rid of most of my NNNNN.com's and kept the better numbers and those that got traffic or were zip codes. I imagine others may have done the same. So I think there still may be a long-term future for NNNNN.com's, but certainly the rapid buyout and then the collapse of the buyout means it is going to be a while before that happens. But the underlying factors I think are still there, most notably increasing internet penetration in China, which, aside from Marchex which owns about 50% of the NNNNN.com's as US zip code sites, accounts for the largest number of actual users of these domains. I think around 5% of NNNNN.com's are developed Chinese sites based on random sampling I have done. Another interesting development in this market is that Marchex has finally begun to use the NNNNN.com version for its zip code sites instead of redirecting everyone to the .net. Whether that means it is planning to drop the .net long term I don't know, but I never understood why they directed to .net in the first place.

[Dorkside]

Thanks for the insight rkb.

I own one NNNNN.com that is a zip code and a few that aren't. I plan to only renew the one that's a zip code.

[Donald Aquilano]

Thanks for the insight rkb.

I own one NNNNN.com that is a zip code and a few that aren't. I plan to only renew the one that's a zip code.

Smart move. What zip code is it?

[ARMG]

I have dropped about 10 nnnnn.com's without any traffic and all of them have been registered almost instantly by mostly Asian companies.

[Dale Hubbard]

Worthless. Get back in the program and spend your money on generics and keywords.

[rkbdomain]

Isn't a numeric a generic?

[TdotTrader]

Why do the Chinese like these so much?
I own 2, don't really like them, but whatever....
I'm in no way trying to advertise but i like the fact that nums are the same spelt backwards 7 0 9 0 7
GN Guys

[draggar]

I was able to sell off a couple of them but back in Feb I let over 20 drop, I didn't want to pay the renewal fees since they didn't even pay for themselves.

It's odd, though - many were picked up from a drop and most of the others are being registered now. I couldn't sell a lot of them for more than $1 then, too.

[Yaadoo]

Why do the Chinese like these so much?
I own 2, don't really like them, but whatever....
I'm in no way trying to advertise but i like the fact that nums are the same spelt backwards 7 0 9 0 7
GN Guys

I can only give you my opinion and since I am ethnically a chinese but not born in China I get a sense of why. As most people know already numbers resemble a lot with words in the chinese language and that probably is one reason to it. Secondly, chinese people are usually more superstitious than the western world in general, from what I see. And numbers play a role in it too. It's not just like in the western world where we got lucky 7, they got numberous numbers that mean things and combinations that form sentences.

Like, you rarely see this from where I live(Canada). But the last time I went to China, when you get a cell number. You can either get a random one, or buy one. They give you a list with the price on it. And some phone numbers go from like $50 to up couple ten thousand dollars that I saw. Depending on like repeat numbers or like some combo numbers that mean like success in your lifetime and stuff like that. Even though ppl are not really superstitious, they just sometimes follow the rules I find. Plus, these superstitious rules or whatever you want to call it, is very widely known that it just makes your phone number easier to remember.

And like RBK there are multiple chinese sites that use Numberic domains. In my opinion and can't see this going off in the western world, at least not anytime soon. But for places like China, who knows.

I mean just look at 163.com, it's a huge site for news and email and stuff. Most people here probably never heard of it, but people in China, it's a very popluar site.

[DomainsInc]

nowheresville..whatsthebigideaville....seriously, 99% of these names make no sense and have no real use. Its only resellers keeping it alive.

[Yaadoo]

I agree with you that majority, maybe not 99% but a large portion don't have much meaning and it's the reseller market that keeps it alive. But I guess that's how the domaining industry works sometimes. Just like all those countless LLLL.com that have no meaning too. Like XYUK.com, it probably has no meaning either.

Domaining has become sort of in a sense like the stock market to some extend.

[David G]

But the underlying factors I think are still there, most notably increasing internet penetration in China, which, aside from Marchex which owns about 50% of the NNNNN.com's as US zip code sites, accounts for the largest number of actual users of these domains.

I have always wondered why the Chinese like numerics. Can you please explain why that is so, especially regarding the nnnnn's?