Wired.com just published a post entitled “Why .Com is the Venture Capital Community’s Power Player” highlighting the use of .Com by VC backed startups.
“In a recent essay, Paul Graham, venture capitalist and co-founder of the Y Combinator seed capital firm said, “The problem with not having the .com of your name is that it signals weakness.” It’s no wonder that 100 percent of the top 20 Y Combinator companies by valuation have the .com of their name.”
The article goes on to quote 3 recent studies on the subject:
- In 2015, data from CB Insights showed that among the 25,000 tech companies funded since 2010, more than 20,000 companies chose .com domain names.
- DNGeek.com analyzed 2,195 newly funded startups that raised a combined $10 billion in funding in the first two quarters of 2016, and reported that .com was used by 73.7 percent of those startups.
- By referencing the 2016 Forbes Midas List, as well as Finsmes (which tallies up the most represented VC firms on the list), Verisign found that 100 percent of the top 10 most represented VC firms on the list, and over 90 percent of their portfolio companies, have a .com.
The article goes on to quote Legendary domain investor Mike Mann who said “agree that a long .com domain name is better, more memorable and less confusing to consumers than a short domain name on a lesser-known domain extension.”
Dot-Com is King…
all the good .com’s are taken by domain squatters
Are you a joke?
This was sponsored content from Verisign.
I’m curious to see how many non.com companies (company moniker and/or main brand that use a non .com URL as its main site) have valuations over $1 Billion USD.
I would not include ABC.XYZ as the brand/moniker is not “ABC”.
Line.me (which does not own .com) had a super IPO this year on the NYSE and its market cap is over $10 Billion
Ele.me — the food delivery company in China is valued at over $5 Billion
I know there must be several .net companies with valuations over $1 Billion.
Bottom Line: VCs want to go big. They want to hit HRs with high ROI liquidity events (M&A or IPO)
If you can get the .com, go for it. But I’m sure most people who visit this blog know this.
No surprise here.
If you want to be on top, you need to have the .com domain name for your products and services.
Own your .com own your brand name.
Beg to differ.
.com doesn’t make you, nor does it signify strength
What comes prior to the .com signifies strength.
The .com may be valuable in the USA, but if you happen to be targeting the UK then .co.uk is better, if you are in Australia then .com.au
Your strength is based on what your market knows, or that which makes you stand out from the crowd.
many startups prefer the .io .me .co TLDs