Ask HN: How important is a .com domain name? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How important is a .com domain name?

9 pointsequilibrium20 comments

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's on auction or is already owned?

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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.

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.

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/ I would expect that over time, the release of new gTLD's will change the perception of a .com being "better" than other domains.

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]

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

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.

> 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.

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.

.co is the worst alternative because it easily confused with .com

.io and .org or .xxx or such are the only other good alternative tlds imo. Basically tlds with a strong sense of purpose that won't be forgotten unlike something like .co

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

All I can say to you is that you need to consult your business plan. Who is the target audience? As people here have noted, anyone tech savvied does not really care yet other do. How is the website going to be used now and in the future? Is it just after sales support for example. What is the projected turnover for the company? What amount of sales will be driven by the website. Is the website part of the company image? Will the .com domain effect your company? You may also look into your countries laws and if you can claim the domain, for example due to registered trademark.

After you have those answers you will be in a better position to think about what I first said, the only difference is the money wanted. If the company is successful and at a later point you still want the domain, it is going to be more expensive.

If you want the .com and it is available then I would suggest getting it while you can.

When negotiating a domain purchase, it's best to use a third party that isn't connected to the project in any way. This prevents the seller from seeing that you're a developer and jumping to conclusions, thus jacking the price.

$7500 isn't the worst - -

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.

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.

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.

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