
Ask HN: How important is a .com domain name? - equilibrium
How important a is .com domain name for a startup, and what would you consider is a reasonable amount to pay for a domain that&#x27;s on auction or is already owned?
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mattwritescode
5 - 10 years ago it might have mattered more than now. Now I would say .com is
not so important; the reason being that most traffic will come from search
engines.

If you are going to be wasting time looking for a .com domain i would suggest
spending this time instead on seo and marketing on your site / application
keywords.

If you look at all the new startups a lot are using .io, .ly, .st etc; im sure
if they make it big a number will start looking at .com domains but for the
time being its just not viable if the domain is already taken or squatted.

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ldng
I'd add that if you depend on SEO, I'd be careful about the tld I choose. For
instance, the .io has only been upgraded recently from country level to
general tld by google. Im not sure .ly and .st are currently treated as
generic wrt search engine indexing.

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shawnreilly
I agree with lots of the replies here; Something else to consider is your
product itself and how it's distributed. For example, releasing a Mobile Web
App would probably make the domain name more important than releasing a Native
Mobile App. In the case of a Mobile Web App, the domain becomes the
distribution channel, and in some ways could be considered a part of the
Product. In the case of a Native Mobile App, the domain becomes more of an
information source and marketing tool while the Product itself is distributed
via App Stores. Right now I'm working on a Native Mobile App for both iOS and
Android, so an .io domain was fine with me (bought the .co anyway, the .com is
being squatted). On another project, the Product is a Mobile Web App, so
having the .com was important.

Ironically, I've found the availability of a domain name to be one of the
leading deciding factors in naming a Product. Logically, I would think that
the Trademark Status is more important, but 99% of the time the Trademark is
Available while the .com is being squatted. Sucks.

I should also note that ICANN is about to roll out the new gTLD's. You can
read more about it here:
[http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/](http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/) I would expect
that over time, the release of new gTLD's will change the perception of a .com
being "better" than other domains.

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olefoo
It depends on your audience. If your audience is made up primarily of people
who didn't grow up with the internet in their lives; then yes, it provides a
signal of probity and seriousness, especially if you're wanting them to give
you money directly.

The younger your audience the more creative you can be in that respect.

[the above is pure opinion, untainted by actual research]

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bhhaskin
I would have to agree with you. Less tech savvy user are less likely to trust
an odd TLD.

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stevewillows
I recently took a .co for a new brand I'm launching. The .com was taken by a
golf course - - in my first few weeks I've found that people who are active on
the Internet don't miss a beat.

As some have noted, .com isn't as critical as it used to be. It all depends on
your key demographic, but if it's for a more technical crowd, an io, co or
something that has been adopted outside of its home country should be fine.
There are a lot of variables to consider though.

Edit: looks like most of us said the same thing. The nice thing about co are
some of the offers that go along with it. They're making a conscious effort to
build a community around it.

I've got a few domains that use the cctld to complete a word - - this usually
leaves people more confused than anything.

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throwaway420
> I recently took a .co for a new brand I'm launching. The .com was taken by a
> golf course - - in my first few weeks I've found that people who are active
> on the Internet don't miss a beat.

Not trying to insult you or anything, but how can you be certain of this? You
obviously wouldn't have access to any statistics that the golf course has.

You might be doing ok now, but would be doing better with the .com. You just
might be missing out on some potential visitors and never know it.

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stevewillows
A little late to respond -- nonetheless, this is purely based on my initial
customers and distributers. Of course the .com would be better, but so far the
people I have spoken with haven't had any issues with the .co.

This being said, the scale of this business is small and wouldn't generate
enough traffic to show even if I had access to the golf course's stats.

'co' is also part of my brand -- for both instagram, facebook and twitter user
IDs. I think this also contributes to the success.

But like you said, there are plenty of unknowns.

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ScottWhigham
_what would you consider is a reasonable amount to pay for a domain that 's on
auction or is already owned?_

That's just not a reasonable question to ask without more specifics. Which is
more valuable: stocks.com or agfag08u24tji.com?

There is no value on a .com aside from (a) what the seller will sell it for
and (b) what a buyer is willing to pay. You can have all the appraisals in the
world but they don't mean anything if the seller won't sell it for that price
or the buyer is willing to purchase at any cost.

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sejje
There most certainly can be value attached to a domain outside of what the
buyer/seller are negotiating.

The idea that a buyer or seller might ignore the value is irrelevant.

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andrewhillman
It depends. There are a bunch a good tlds besides .com but .com is obviously
ideal. I'd start with whatever you can snag then when you gain some traction
spend some money for the .com

In terms of cost... It depends how many letters or if its a dictionary domain.
3 letter domains are not cheap. Look for comparable sales.

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aDevilInMe
If you want the .com and it is available then I would suggest getting it while
you can, otherwise some low life company will acquire and squat on it wanting
about $1000.

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equilibrium
if this puts things into perspective, after some negotiation the asking price
is $7500

~~~
nmridul
You might lose some of your traffic to the .com name. So it all depends on who
your target audience is and how much each lost visitor would cost you.

\- If they are older people, most of them would by default type in .com when
they hear a business name. (eg - google.com). So go for the .com

\- If they are from a particular country that has a strong ctld (uk, .de etc),
then don't go for the .com, but go for the tld.

\- If they are young and tech savvy. Ignore the .com. Any domain name would be
ok as most of them would search and find.

EDIT - And also take into consideration what type of business you are running.
If offline business with more offline marketing, then go for the .com. Online
marketing, people would click links, so any domain would be ok.

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timhargis
I've bought a number of domains aftermarket before - all .com. I think .com is
important if you can get it a reasonable price but not at the expense of other
more important things centered around building the actual product itself.

If your company grows the .com name only goes up in perceived selling value
then...ala Facebook, Dropbox, etc.

A lot of people on HN are used to different extensions because that's the
world we live in but the general public is used to .coms so I agree that it
depends on your audience but if it's a consumer mass market product, I think
.com is important. I've spent up to $5000 on different names and I've always
been able to get them for about 30-40% of asking price.

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LarryMade2
I think it spends on the audience - going for like minded tech savvy folk, I
don’t think it matters that much if they have problems typing/remembering
whatever TLD extension they will try other methods to find it.

Now if your audience is more the general public at large. .com is the default
for most web browsers to append to non-TLD identified addresses. Or in a
search the .com selection may seem more like the logical choice to a neophyte
user.

So going for the older generations, try to stick with .com, contemporaries or
younger then you probably can diverge from that without problems.

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jamesjguthrie
I'd say it's not important at all any more. Users will type a web address - at
most - once into their address bar then they only need to type the first
letter or two. Sometimes a user will just search in the address bar or
directly on Google for your company/product name.

