Using site analytics from compete.com to estimate numbers of unique monthly users offers some insight into recent top tier domain sales, and whether the perceived value for the buyer comes from capturing existing traffic, or future use of a generic brand. While traffic may be an element of appeal in some cases, overall clearly brand value dominates the valuation in most cases.
Toys.com (sold $5.1 million) has about 20k monthly users, but spikes to 120k in december:
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/toys.com/?metric=uv
CCS.com sold for $5.8m has about 350k users per month
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/ccs.com/?metric=uv
Call.com sold for $1.25m has around 600 users per month
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/call.com/?metric=uv
Fund.com sold for $10 million has about 1500 users per month
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/fund.com/?metric=uv
Auction.com sold for $1.7 million has about 14,000 users per month
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/auction.com/?metric=uv
Results.com just sold for $500k, has 1200 users per month
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/results.com/?metric=uv
VooDoo.com just sold for $300k has almost 4,000 users per month
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/voodoo.com/?metric=uv
Photos.com part of a $96 million acquisition closed in Feb. has 85,000 users per month. notice the traffic uptrend when used as a portal by Getty
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/photos.com/?metric=uv
Body.com sold for $400k has fewer than 2,000 users per month
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/body.com/?metric=uv
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