
98% of Top YC Companies by valuation use a .com domain - gist
I was wondering about the statements here (2015) and they not only hold true but seem even higher for .com use in 2019:<p>Per: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;paulgraham.com&#x2F;name.html<p>&gt; 100% of the top 20 YC companies by valuation have the .com of their name. 94% of the top 50 do.<p>Top 20: 100% (2019)<p>Top 32: 100% (2019)<p>Top 50: 98% (2019)<p>Top 100: 95% (2019)<p>(Twitch #21 actually owns twitch.com ... xendit #53 owns xendit.com .. cleartax owns cleartax.com ... quero owns quero.com )<p>Ref: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ycombinator.com&#x2F;topcompanies&#x2F;
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azhenley
But did they use a .com in the beginning? Or did they fetch those expensive
domains later on?

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greenyoda
Also, some of those companies were created a many years ago, when there were
probably more cheap .com domain names available. "reddit.com" was probably
pretty cheap to get in 2005.

And I bet if you look at the much longer list of all the YC companies that
failed, you'll probably find out that most of them also had .com domains. If
there's any correlation between domain name and success, I'm guessing it's
pretty low. Companies ultimately succeed because they have a good product,
good marketing and good management (and are in the right place at the right
time), not because they have a catchy name.

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gist
Reddit.com is not what anyone would consider a 'valuable' domain in any way.
It's pretty much random. There wouldn't really isn't any good reason to not
use a .com if you are going for a madeup and pretty much random domain name
(all down side).

> If there's any correlation between domain name and success, I'm guessing
> it's pretty low.

PG's point (and I don't agree with everything he says or thinks but he is
correct here) is that any serious company uses a .com domain. Of course so do
failure and non serious companies.

> when there were probably more cheap .com domain names available.

Good .com domains were expensive in the 90's. And to my reply to the other
comment 'expensive' does not frame anything relating to the value for the
particular purpose.

