Escrow.com today released its Domain Name Investment Index for Q4/2022.
Here is the press release that we received:
Year-on-year, Escrow has seen a 49.26% decrease in the total value of domain name transactions from $158M in 4Q21 to $80M in 4Q22.
Over 75% of the fall in 4Q22 is attributable to the decrease in the volume of domain name transactions, which decreased by 20% from US$514M in FY21, to $411M in FY22. Global venture capital funding in FY22 fell 35% to US$445 billion. This drop followed through to a fall in mega domain transactions ($10m+).
Escrow.com Gross Payment Volume (GPV) in 4Q22 was AU$189.5m down 48% on pcp or (US$124.5m down 53.2% on pcp). For the FY22, Escrow GPV was $953.4m, down 11.7% on pcp (US$668.4m, down 17.3%).
Despite this drop, the Escrow.com business was profitable in FY22. [PDF]
February 2023 is shaping up to be the best month since July ‘22, possibly June ‘22, and we are fairly confident that 1Q23 GPV will be higher than 4Q22. However, volume has yet to fully return to the heights seen in 2021 / early 2022.
