Identity Digital releases data about age, popular domains, and what investors look for in a registrar.

Domain Registry Identity Digital issued a report (pdf) today that looked into domain investing.

The company combined qualitative interviews and a survey of 100+ domain investors. It’s a fairly small and non-scientific sample, but I think a few things are worth calling out.

• Domain investors said low renewal fees are the most important factor for choosing a domain registrar. When I used to conduct a DNW survey, prices were consistently the number-one answer to this question.
• Many people think that domain investing is most popular with those who grew up as the internet was booming in the late 90s and early 2000s. But the majority of survey takers were Millennials aged 30-39.
• Of survey respondents, 66% said they are part-time domain investors. This number seems low, especially given that the median portfolio size among those surveyed was 100 domains.
• While it’s a somewhat self-serving question for Identity Digital, I’m not surprised to see that 67% of people said the registry operator behind a domain influences their investing, and 69% are more likely to invest when they see a registry marketing their TLDs. I think many savvy domain investors consider how much muscle is behind a domain and the registry’s operating history. Nobody wants to invest in a domain that will have a sudden, major price increase, for example.
• Identity Digital said there was a 69% “new positive sentiment” of .ai domains and 64% for .io among investors. I asked for something to compare this to, and the company said that .com had the highest net favorability at 87%.