DomainIndex Methodology

This is a description of the methodology used to calculate the Domain Pricing indices provided by Domainindex SARL.

General

The Domainindex calculations of indices are based on a set of 280.000 Domain names in 14 languages and currently 52 different TLDs (9 gTLDs and 43ccTLDs - download ).

Most of the indices are published on JPMetric's website Domainindex.com. Some languages and TLD's are under development and will be added later.

The Base Set of 280.000 Domains has been chosen in a way that each type of domain is represented in the various indices. The Basic set is to be seen as a small representation of the total domain name space which currently consists of approximately 195 Million Domain Names. The domains contained in the indices have been chosen using the following categorisations:

• a) language
• b) domains lenght
• c) registration date
• d) type of domain
• e) industry
• f) semantics type

The indices are based on appraised prices of the set of 280.000 domains. One of the most important aspects of the Domains indices provided by Domainindex SARL is that Every Index or subindex always represents the average value of one domain in the chosen group.

for example:

a) If the Global Domains Index has a value of 450 USD, this means that 450 USD is the average price of all domains.

b) If a subindex (which can be easily put together in the research section of Domainindex) of prime Geo Domains in .in (India) and .cn (China) is 1298 USD this means that the average price of a prime geo domain in these two ccTLD's combined equals 1298 USD.

The pricing factors

Pricing factors affect the appraised value of the domains. The Basic set is constantly monitored and updated whenever new data from the market is available. Some indices may change several times per minute.

• a) Manual appraisal
• b) Domainindex based data
• c) Marshallindex words popularity data
• d) Economic data of a keyword group
• e) Domain deals
• f) Economic data of the country in the case of ccTLDs
• g) Technical and political factors from registries and ccTLDs countries
• h) Searchvolume
• i) News

We do not reveal the exact formula in which we calculate the value at this moment, but we have audited the methodology to make sure that the method is not subject to manipulation in order to influence index prices in any favor.

All data is generated automatically based on numbers that can not be influenced by the creators of the Domainindex.

The weighting factors

The weighting factors are of great importance for the creation of the indices. In order to create meaningful indices that allow you to compare various sectors of the domainspace it is of greatest importance that the value of a specific index always represents the average price of one domain of this group.

To ensure that any combined index will always give an average price, we have created various weighting factors that are used in the calculation of all indices.

a) Domain multiplicators

Each domain contained in the base set of domains has a domains multiplicator. The domains multiplicator is used to weight in domains of different qualities. The domain marble.com has a multiplicator of 15, because the assumption is that there are about 15 more domains of this quality in the same category, gTLD and language. The domain fun1000.com has a multiplicator of 740 because our research concludes that there are total of 740 domains of the same quality in the same niche in the .com gTLD. On the base of the domain multiplicators and the choice of domains, the indices will automatically weight in correctly any group of domain into an index.

This is the basic Formula to calculate an index based on one TLD and one language.

Domain Value x Domain multiplicator = Multiplied Domain Value

All Multiplied Domain Values = Total Value of the TLD (TLDv)

TLDv / All multiplicators added together = Average Domain value = Index

b) TLD weight

In order to calculate indices that contain domains of multiple TLD's it is necessary to weight the results between the TLD's. The calculation of the domain weight is based on the total number of domains registered in a specific TLD and the yearly registration fee of a domain in the same TLD. The formula to determine the weight of 2 TLDs (a and b) is:

Total amount of registered domains in TLD x renewal fee in TLD = total renewal income of the TLD =TRI

Total amount of registered domains in TLD x renewal fee in TLD = total renewal income of the TLD =TRI

TRI + TRI = TRI

TRI / TRI = Weight factor of TLD in %

TRI / TRI = Weight factor of TLD in %

c) Language weight

To produce an index from a set of domains that consists of more then 1 language it is necessary to weight the languages in each of the TLDs that are part of a specific index. The values used to weight the languages are based on our research of the TLD's registered domains and the used languages as well as based on search queries in various languages and countries. Each TLD has an individual profile of used languages.

The Formula to calculate an Index based on 3 languages (a,b,c) is:

Total value of all domains in language(a) / Total of multiplicators of language(a) = Average Domain values(a) = Index(a)

Total value of all domains in language(b) / Total of multiplicators of language(b) = Average Domain values(b) = Index(b)

Total value of all domains in language(c) / Total of multiplicators of language(c) = Average Domain values(c) = Index(c)

Index(a) / 100 x Language factor for language (a) in this TLD +
Index(b) / 100 x Language factor for language (b) in this TLD +
Index(c) / 100 x Language factor for language (c) in this TLD = Index for (a,b,c)

Translations and Multiple meanings

One large part of the domain base set of 280.000 preevaluated domains is a set we call translanguage cluster. These are 10.000 domain names that have been translated in 16 languages in order to allow comparisons between same keywords in different languages and TLDs. The translations have been choosen to reflect same values between translations rather then exact meaning; for example, the translation of bagel into german will not be bagel because its not well known in germany or austria but will rather be semmel which is a term equaly popular in Germany and Austria.

Some translations have multiple meaning in different languages, man has meanings in pinyin, spanish, polish and English, but the most valuable keyword is the word man in English, therefore the word is only treated as an english word and has been removed from all other language sets, again in order to reflect realistic average domain price values for all sets of domains.

Changes in Evaluations lead to changes in the Index

Domainindex SARL is constantly monitoring its base set of domains. From time to time we might decide to reevaluate a domains appraisal if we find it's been inaccurate and not because we have detected a change of value in this specific domain. In this case the reevaluation will affect not only the current index level but the Index will be recalculated from the first day on. This will occur only rarely and will affect the index's value only marginaly, however we feel its important to mention so that there will be no confusion if values in the past change. This monitoring will go on until december 31. 2011. After this day we will not make changes to the past values anymore.

Hidden values

There are 2 specialities in the base set in order to maintain consistency over years; one is, that it contains domains that have not yet registered as well as domains that may not have been released by registries to date. The reason is that the value of these does exist allready even if their release or registration has not happen, in this way a release or registration of these domains wil not lead to a jump of value in the indices.

We are working with a large team of industry experts and data contributors, as well as all NIC's and ICANN to build our indexes: