Domain Market in Europe

Four out of ten highest sales in 2008 were ccTLDs, this is 4x more than in 2007. Among TOP 100 sales there were 10 ccTLDs (3x .de, 3x .co.uk, 2x .nl, 1x .ca, 1x .es), they totaled $4,8 millon. German and UK domains are the strongest ccTLDs.

TOP 10 domain sales in 2008

Fund.com $9,999,950
DataRecovery.com $1,659,000
Kredit.de €892,500
Cruises.co.uk £560,000
Invest.com $1,015,000
SkiResorts.com $850,000
Printer.com $800,000
iReport.com $750,000
Casino.de €400,000
Jobs.ca $600,000

Source: DNJournal.com

In 2007 Poker.de was the only ccTLD in TOP 10 (at 10th place).

List of all ccTLDs in TOP 100 highest sales in 2008

3	Kredit.de	$1,169,175
4	Cruises.co.uk	$1,099,798
9	Casino.de	$625,060
10	Jobs.ca	$600,000
19	Phones.co.uk	$344,710
24	FreeCreditReport.co.uk	$300,000
30	Seks.nl	$258,000
51	Auto.es	$173,682
77	Suchmaschinenoptimierung.de	$118,440
81	Relatiegeschenk.nl	$111,347

Previous year (2007) there were seven ccTLD sales in TOP 100: Poker.de, Job.at, Recycle.co.uk, Mobile.co.uk, Fly.co.uk, Connected.co.uk, One.es. United Kingdom took four out of seven top ccTLDs.

Most popular ccTLDs in annual DNJournal sales charts

#	2008	2007	ccTLD	Country
1.	23	27	.de	Germany
2.	15	23	.co.uk	United Kingdom
3.	12	2	.fr	France
4.	9	4	.ca	Canada
5.	8	2	.nl	Netherlands
6.	4	0	.pl	Poland
6.	4	7	.tv	Tuvalu
6.	4	4	.se	Sweden
6.	4	5	.us	USA
10.	3	4	.eu	European Union
10.	3	0	.me	Montenegro
10.	3	1	.it	Italy

Germany and United Kingdom are the “kings” but they are declining (especially .co.uk domain). Polish ccTLD with four sales in TOP 100 grabbed 6th place (ex equo .tv, .us, .es). French TLD is also very interesting, it rose from two sold .fr domains in 2007 to twelve in 2008! Look at the statistics above and make your own thoughts.

A little bit strange for me is the fact that there is no .cn name on the list – quite surprising, especially if we remember that .cn ccTLD has now more domains than any other ccTLD in the world (with more than 13 million names).