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Demand for aftermarket domain names grew substantially in 2007, setting yet a new record-setting benchmark for the market, according to an annual report [PDF] conducted by Sedo. The continued increase in domain name value was spurred by the necessity for organizations and businesses to secure quality domain names that are no longer available through traditional registrars, as well as the greater ability to generate search engine optimization through targeted domain names.

Sedo, whose leading secondary domain name marketplace has long served as an index for industry performance, topped the $70 million mark in domain sales brokered for the first time in its history. This number was almost two times that of its 2006 total.

Overall, average domain name sale price was up approximately 7.8 percent. This increase was in part due to an increase in value of both geographic and other alternative top-level domain extensions (TLDs) such as .co.uk, .es, .eu and .mobi, while traditional alternative domain extensions such as .info and .biz decreased in average value.

"2007 proved to be another banner year for Sedo as even more businesses and investors became aware of the pivotal role secondary domain names play on the Internet," said Tim Schumacher, chief executive officer for Sedo. "We look forward to continued global expansion in both our domain brokerage and parking service offerings."

The Sedo report also found that advertising revenue generated from domain name parking, or matching pay-per-click advertisements with relevant domain names, also increased substantially on a per site basis as parked sites offered visitors more compelling content. In 2007, Sedo paid out more than $50 million to its community of domain owners using the company's award winning parking program to monetize their unused domains.

Sedo also announced that is has surpassed the 10 million mark for domain names listed in its marketplace with users listing nearly 10.5 million domains for sale. The Sedo community added over 3.5 million names this year alone, proving the expanding global awareness of its marketplace.

Additionally, the company was recently voted as the No. 1 E-Commerce Web Host by readers of Web Host Directory, an online leader for comparing and purchasing hosting products. The Web Host Directory awards panel noted that, "with more than 500,000 members around the world trading domains in more than 21 languages, Sedo stands alone as the world's only global domain marketplace."

See related topics: DNS, Domain Names, Top-Level Domains, Web Hosting

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