While driving to a wedding and admiring the beautiful and scenic views of the Texas Hill Country not far from the hustle and bustle of Interstate 35, an unusual billboard promoting a .live domain caught my eye.
I often encounter dozens of billboards traveling, whether for personal or business, throughout central Texas.
However, the billboard I encountered this day caught my eye because of how low it was to the ground, right at eye level, made of wood and not the normal big-box steel used by the bigger outdoor advertising firms.
But more so what caught me off guard as well as catching my eye was a .live web address for an air show, car show and music fest to be held at the San Marcos Regional Airport: GoWheelsUp.LIVE.
My apologies the image quality couldn’t be better. I had hoped to stop by on our way back, but it was pitch black darkness. I couldn’t remember the exact location of the billboard anyway, even if my life depended on it, due to the darkness.
Nevertheless, I was excited to visit GoWheelsUp.live via my phone once we arrived onsite at the wedding 30 or so minutes early.
I was surprised a fully developed, mobile-friendly .live website of an organization that appeared to have had a successful first year and aiming to return the event for 2020.
I often expect non .com domains, especially domains using new extensions, to redirect to a .com address as a way to measure the return on investment of a given marketing and advertising campaign, whether online or offline.
In fact, our church used .live web addresses for two separate events (see images of group testing) in recent months to redirect to a live trivia and online gaming experience, CrowdPurr.com, that also uses .live domains to promote it’s service: Crowd.live and CrowdPurr.live.
The first was AllWeDoIsWin.live, which was a live trivia game used throughout our marriage event by groups of married couples.
The second was ChooseYourStory.live, which was used in our The Story of The Bible sermon series as an interactive experience during Easter services, much like the old Choose Your Adventure Books I read growing up as a kid.
And while know .live domains can be used to redirect or developed into fully functional websites, the real question remains…
Are .live domains worth investing in?
Of course, I couldn’t wait to get home from the wedding to start .live domain research.
I quickly discovered a number of personal and gamer brands using .live domains. A large number of websites using .live domains are focus on live streaming content, with a growing percentage of redirected .live domains to Twitch — a live streaming video platform for gamers and the things people love.
Below are few notable brands with .live domains indexed in Google:
- xbox.live – redirects to Microsoft’s xbox.com website
- YouTubeTV.live – redirects to TV.YouTube.com
- CBS.live – redirects to CBS.com
- Fox.live – redirects to Fox.com
- Stub.live – redirects to Bitly.com
- TheJacksons.live – an official Jackson family website dedicated to sharing their legacy, news, and upcoming tour dates
While stumbling upon The Jackson’s website, I also discovered Zakk Sabbath’s facebook image, posted a few hours ago, promoting both .live and .VIP domains.
ZakkSabbath.live redirects to a BandsInTown.com page listing concert tour dates and locations while ZakkSabbath.vip redirects to SoundRick.com page listing the same info.
Interesting enough, I checked to see if ZakkSabbath.com resolved to a website, and discovered it redirects to merhq.net (short for Magnetic Eye Records) for their latest album, Vertigo.
The next place I sought to gain a clear understanding of the number of registered, parked, and developed .live domains was NTLDStats.com.
Based on results at the time of this publication (see image above), .live domain registrations are on an upward trend in growth over the last 3 years.
While this growth pales in comparison to the overall .com stats, I was surprised to discover approximately 365,000 .live domains are registered. Out of that number, roughly 40% (~145K) are parked domains.
Overall, eNom, Inc. (Tucows) (~33%), GoDaddy (17%), and NameCheap (%14) make up nearly 65% of all .live domain registrations.
Discovering the upward trend in .live domain registrations, I was curious about whether or not .live domain had any notable sales, if any. This thought led me to NameBio.com.
Researching NameBio.com .live domain sales, I discovered only 31 reported, with the oldest dating back to November 30, 2015. Majority of the reported .live domain sales by NameBio occurred in 2016 and 2018.
$12.6K is the average price of the 31 reported .live domain sales, amounting almost $400K in total dollar sales.
And while I don’t condone or promote adult or gambling related domains, here are the top 10 following .live sales as reported by NameBio:
- sex.live – $160,000 – Aug 2016
- porn.live – $120,000 – Aug 2016
- live.live – $25,000 – Apr 2016
- stream.live – $20,000 – Nov 2016
- church.live – $20,000 – Oct 2016
- hollywood.live – $15,000 – Jul 2016
- wetter.live – $15,000 – Nov 2015
- casino.live – $5,000 – Feb 2016
- z.live – $3,200 – Oct 2016
- diretta.live – $2,022 – Feb 2017
As you can see above, pricing is all over the map. NameBio lists $100 as the lowest price and $160,000 as the highest price reported for .live domain sales.
NameBio lists only 11 sales for .live domains that cross the $1,000 threshold. The remaining 20 sales are $500 or less.
.live domains are quite affordable at GoDaddy’s intro pricing of $1.99 and $29.99 annual renewal fee ($17.99 with GoDaddy Discount Domain Club membership).
This is likely music to the ears of an unsuspecting domain investor that’s new to the industry, thinking about quick flipping their way to becoming the next “rags to riches” domain investing story.
However, I certainly don’t recommend domain investors trying their hand at flipping .live domains, nor do I believe .live domains are long-term investments.
In most cases, the use of new domain extensions, including .live domains, are likely best used as secondary redirect or development domains.
In closing, do you think .live domains are best used for interactive and live streaming content?
Other interesting websites making using .live domains:
WSBTV.live – redirects to live video from WSB-TV local newscasts in Atlanta
Coins.live – latest cryptocurrency news
Loveaholics.live – dating website
Endow.live – small group communities dedicated to women transmitting the depth of Catholic faith to awaken themselves and others
Campus.live – start learning English online today
Kudo.live – cloud-based platform allowing web conferencing and live event collaboration
Denuncias.live – redirects to gop.pe — ministry of women and vulnerable populations, aiming to Peru a country where all are equal, live without discrimination and with equal opportunities
EastTexasNow.live – redirects to live video from KLTV local newscasts
TNTD.live – redirects to LiveTinted.com — a multicultural community to discuss all things beauty and culture
Box.live – the latest news, schedule, rankings & results of all the biggest fights in boxing
Up.live – leading live video streaming platform
Linkes.live – an Android tool, Lucky Patcher removes ads, modifies app permissions, and backs up and restores apps.
IPC.live – web portal for The India Pentecostal Church of God
Mimo.live – a software that turns your Mac into a video switcher for creating real time video live streams
AWEurope2019.live – redirects to AffiliateWorldConferences.com/Europe — the meeting place for the world’s top affiliate and performance marketers: Affiliate World Europe 2019
TheWell.live – church in Providence Kentucky known as The Well at New Convenant
Reporter.live – latest breaking news and videos for Kerala, India
MP3Converter.live – YouTube to MP3 Converter
BR.live – watch live sports online
Hop.live – smartphone only streaming service
Ablo.live – app allowing instant global communication
MatchPlay.live – app providing live results for tournaments
Be.live – redirects to BeLive.tv — an app to engagement community via solo, interview, or talk show broadcasts.
Republic.live – latest news from India & around the world
Cameleon.live – live streaming tool and app for iPhone
Leicestershire.live – latest news, sports, and events from around Leicester
SocialBlade.live – website dedicated to checking real time subscriber count across an array of social platforms
Videmate.live – a lightweight and powerful HD video downloader apk. Interesting to see videmate is an app using a .live domain instead of a app
Abiola.live – a spiritual success coach, life strategist and woman’s empowerment expert
FlightRadar.live – an app for flight tracking real time
LetsRecycle.live – two-day conference filled with networking events, seminars, indoor and outdoor exhibitions and live equipment & vehicle demonstrations addressing waste and recycling, sustainability and the circular economy
MVS.live – a decentralized platform based on blockchain technology use to build and create an open ecosystem
Football365.live – the latest football live scores, goal updates, latest odds standings and results
NitroCircus.live – portal to see the best athletes in FMX, BMX, scooter, skate and every other contraption you can think
ProxyBay.live – provides a list of Pirate Bay Proxy sites
AudioTree.live – stream high-quality musical performances with record-quality audio and dynamic HD video
BDIPTV.live – free online tv streaming website
Sauce.live – latest electronic dance music, news, interviews and more
FIH.live – International Hockey Federation for field hockey and indoor field hockey
Mandani.live – Islamic organization for preaching and educating Islam
Pix.live – free resource for learning Photoshop and Lightroom
TheStudyBoard.live – website committed to preparing students for success in the National Boards Dental Examinations
Hatch.live – stream movies, shows, and music using world’s only made-for-5g game streaming service
LesMills.live – bringing you the world’s biggest fitness party of 2019.
DSFH.live – Dr. Soliman Fakeeh Hospital
As a domain investor and business consultant, Alvin actively participates in daily domain auctions. Outside of auctions, he passionately shares his views, opinions, and vision for how businesses should and should not use domain names to generate greater customer growth and revenue.
