Key findings of our domain investing trend
We asked 433 domain investors who use The-Online.com for domain registrations (and have 25+ domains in their account) as well as other domain registrar and marketplace platforms to gather real insights into current domain investing strategies and 2026 trends. Thanks to the domain investing community for participating in the short survey.
Here are the key findings:
- .COM tld is the most preferred domain extension for investing. 71% domains registered for either investment or for starting a business at .COMs. Then 2nd runner-up is .ORG tld with 15% investment rate and the 3rd runner up is .AI with 4% investment into it.
- Domain investors have acquired memorable, business-ready domains.
- Tech startups are the largest buyers of domain names followed by Finance and FinTech ones.
- 53% of the domain investors hold domains in their account for over 4 years. While 9% filp it quickly in under a year.
- Buyers who buy domains from investors are interested to build a business/brand on that domain. This 60% purchases are for establishing a business and only 9% for opt for re-sale of the domain (flipping).
- EMD (Extact Match Domains) are falling. Not much buyers for this kind, but industry-specific domains are gaining more sales/enquiries from the buyers.
- Our domain investors use domain marketplaces for selling their assets. 48% use marketplace or auction platform.