Gin.co.uk sold last month on Sedo for a whopping £5,000 (6600 USD). This makes it one of the biggest published UK domain sales on Sedo this year. Gin.co.uk was first registered in 1996 and is surprisingly currently registered with GoDaddy. It still maintains the rights to Gin.uk.
What’s on the site at the moment?
At the moment the site forwards to a Uniregistry “This domain may be available” page. This would suggest the new buyer is a domain banker or flipper. Alternatively it may mean the site is still in development and the developer hasn’t changed the nameservers over to live production yet. I think the latter option is more likely as there are very few domainers that use GoDaddy to host their domains.
History
A quick look on the web archive shows the domain has been parked since it was purchased in 1996 and never used commercially. There was a basic holding page for what looks like an online Gin shop in 2006, but it does not appear to have been published.
Potential Market
Gin has benefited from a massive surge in popularity over the last 3 – 4 years. It once was an old fashioned spirit, but now it seems to be one of the most popular drinks at the bar. This has resulted in a number of new businesses taking advantage of the surge in popularity. Craft gins are booming and online gin clubs where you are posted a new gin every week or month are becoming very popular online. I see this domain being perfect for a boutique gin retailer and craft gin club. The market potential is huge for a domain of this caliber.
The gin-aissance rolls on as exports of the British spirit spill over a record £500bn
If we take a look at the Google search trends for gin over the last 5 years it shows an exponential rise year on year with noticeable peaks over the summer months and Christmas shopping period. If this growth continues there is a huge potential for profit in this market sector with this domain.
Was £5,000 a good price?
This is sometimes a difficult question to answer with domain sales, but in this case I think £5,000 was an absolutely bargain price. The only problem I see is this domain needs to be developed and brought to market as soon as possible. Gin is possibly at its peak at the moment and the buyer needs to get this domain in action and gaining traction before this popular “gin trend” we are experiencing is over and gin gets overtaken by the next “on-trend” drink.
