Web domains remained big business in 2009

The top selling domain names last year were russia.com and brazil.com

The domain name industry has emerged unscathed from the economic slowdown, according to new figures released today by domain name marketplace Sedo.

The Sedo Domain Marketing Study 2009 (PDF) found that keyword-related .co.uk domains remained big business in 2009, highlighting the sale of software.co.uk for £150,000, and horseracing.co.uk and onlinecasino.co.uk for £100,000 each.

The report said that all of the top 10 domains registered in the UK last year were keyword related.

However, while .co.uk domains are popular, they were beaten into second place in the list of country code Top Level Domains by .de, the extension for Germany.

The top selling domain names overall were russia.com, which sold for £904,319, and brazil.com, which went for £302,489. The .com extensions were the most popular overall, accounting for just under 50 per cent of all registrations. The .net domain accounted for just six per cent.

"We expect to see ongoing demand for premium virtual real estate in 2010, with geo, descriptive, .org and .com domains leading the charge as domain investors and marketers from organisations of all sizes continue to leverage domains to meet their business goals," said Jeremiah Johnston, chief operating officer at Sedo.