At the beginning of 2019, I talked about the rise and fall of crypto domains, and noted a rise in the interest for .ai names. I also discussed the potential impact of big world events, including Brexit. Although many were worried about a potential recession, that thankfully didn’t materialize and 2019 was full of headline grabbing domain sales.

You can read the rest of our take on 2019’s big stories by clicking here. 

As always, domain trends generally reflect the trends we see out in the world. Cannabis domains, for instance, had a moment in 2019 with the legalization of marijuana in Canada and its decriminalization in a number of US states in the past year. 

This year, with the 2020 United States presidential election looming large, we’re sure to see some waves in the domain name industry.

What to watch in 2020:

The US Election

There is a saying in Canada that goes, “When America sneezes, Canada catches a cold,” and it looks like it is going to be a tumultuous year in US politics. President Trump is anything but predictable and the US election will have ramifications across the world.

Some of the Democratic candidates for president have talked about breaking up the dominant tech firms that are used by billions every day (Google, Amazon, and Facebook in particular).

Tech firms and social media platforms are under increasing scrutiny, with data privacy and net neutrality continuing to be major talking points for candidates. We rarely seem to get through a week without news of another major data breach and the new data privacy law in California could become a template for other states and countries.

US politicians have already commented on the .org registry sale and ICANN and Internet governance in general could become a hot button issue. It looks as though the sale will likely go through, but the fallout from that could be far reaching.

Whomever is elected, they will have no shortage of issues to deal with. The impact of automation and artificial intelligence on the workforce, and its subsequent regulation, is only starting to get the attention it deserves.

Policy decisions aside, over $6 billion was spent on the 2016 election cycle and 2020 will almost surely exceed that.  Some of that money will of course be spent on domains. Candidates need websites and slogans often materialize out of improvisations at debates or rallies.

The domain industry doesn’t exist in a bubble. The US election and geopolitics in general will have an impact on this industry, even if you don’t have a vote in the election itself.

IoT, AI/AR/VR and other technologies

AI, AR, and VR were hot topics in 2019, and we’re only expecting this to ramp up even further in the coming years.

IoT (Internet of Things) is another rapidly growing trend, with more and more devices being interconnected. By 2020, it’s expected that over 30 billion devices worldwide will enter the realm of IoT. This means more software, hardware, and communication infrastructure will need to be built to support the demand, which will then trickle down and impact domains.

Most people in North America now have access to a voice assistant (Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri) – have you thought about how easy it is to say your domain out loud? This could be the next generation of the Radio Test.

Overall, I’m expecting a good year for domain name sales. There are lots of potential issues to keep an eye on and there are always surprises, but most categories of names are continuing to trend upward.  I’ll post an update in the summer and we’ll see how the year is going.

Until then, best of luck with your domain investments.

Ryan McKegney
CEO, DomainAgents.com