The Austrian news website Pressetext reports that prices for top domain names in Austria are rocketing. The domain name job.at was recently sold for € 408.000, the hightest price ever paid for an .at domain. This is about six times the price of the domain Mozart.at, which was sold for € 70.000 in 2000 and up until now had been the most expensive Austrian domain name.

Quoting Daniel Kollinger, a domain name expert, Pressetext states that prices in the region of € 400.000 for domain names might appear high but that they are realistic and not all that rare any more. In contrast, prices for .com domains in the United States, the biggest market for domain names, could even reach the million Dollar threshold. Germany, the second biggest market for domain names, has also seen an increase in domain name prices, whereas prices in most other countries are still considerably lower. The most expensive domain on the German speaking market is poker.de, which sold for € 695,000 in 2007. At the same time the domain name market still has a somewhat dubious reputation in Austria, according to Kollinger, which he believes will improve with the market for domains growing and domain name dealers having every interest to improve the image of their trade.