sales BBC - The race to buy AI website addresses (domains)

[silentg]

He adds that one domain name speculator bought an AI website name for $300,000, only to then sell it some months later for $1.5m. "There are speculators in the space who realise companies want the best branding."

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67284936

 

[MadAboutDomains]

but don't expect "AI" to stick around or morph mysteriously into something else like AGI that nobody will ever care about imho

Just to be clear on this. It might well morph, but you won't be able to reliably predict what people will care about or what pithy phrasing or acronym they will use.

 

[paul10]

Paul, if you can find a meaningful, as in good, one word .AI domain to register now, you're a better searcher than I. it's possible., but not likely.

Am not searching for one-word .ai domain anymore because almost all are already taken

 

[Jv1999]

They quoted Joe Uddeme...

Not Rick Schwartz or Mike Mann or any of the AI kings

 

[BocaVision]

For companies that are AI-centric, the decision to acquire AI name assets make sense.

“Ai-centric” domain names are analogous to Apps, API, Cloud, Data, Mobile, Net, Stream, CRM, AR urls.

All these technologies are imbued within everyday products & services.

These tech terms have been around for several years, but these words have not vanished.

Brands still market and vocalize that "tech nomenclature" within their branding + communications and App/Cloud/AR/Streaming companies still buy digital marketing assets pertaining to their core technologies.

 

[paul10]

For companies that are AI-centric, the decision to acquire AI name assets make sense.

“Ai-centric” domain names are analogous to Apps, API, Cloud, Data, Mobile, Net, Stream, CRM, AR urls.

All these technologies are imbued within everyday products & services.

These tech terms have been around for several years, but these words have not vanished.

Brands still market and vocalize that "tech nomenclature" within their branding + communications and App/Cloud/AR/Streaming companies still buy digital marketing assets pertaining to their core technologies.

yes

 

[MKA]

Brands still market and vocalize that "tech nomenclature" within their branding + communications and App/Cloud/AR/Streaming companies still buy digital marketing assets pertaining to their core technologies.

Of course, but if you are Cloudflare you still use cloudflare.com, not flare.cloud or anything like that. Likewise, Open AI is openai.com, not open.ai.

Even those who started with .ai are transitioning to .com. Katalon AI was originally katalon.ai, now it's katalon.com.

At best .ai is a steppingstone. But what's going to happen when all serious AI businesses use the .com instead of the .ai, and all the .ai are small or failed projects? Well...people with AI projects will want the .com over the .ai.

No to mention that when AI becomes properly integrated into the current infrastructure there'll be no need to specify that it's AI. I mean we don't call websites "https-websites," even though they rely https-protocol because it's inferred that all (well managed sites) use the https-protocol.

 

[SixFigures.ltd]

Of course, but if you are Cloudflare you still use cloudflare.com, not flare.cloud or anything like that. Likewise, Open AI is openai.com, not open.ai.

Even those who started with .ai are transitioning to .com. Katalon AI was originally katalon.ai, now it's katalon.com.

Cherry picking.

"The logic of most people in this forum is that:

Why does a website using new gTLD succeed?
Because it has great content and many backlinks.

Why does a website using new gTLD fail?
Because it uses new gTLD.

Why does a website using .com succeed?
Because it uses .com.

Why does a website using .com fail?
Because it has poor content and few backlinks.


This kind of logic is called bias."

 

[MKA]

Cherry picking.

"The logic of most people in this forum is that:

Why does a website using new gTLD succeed?
Because it has great content and many backlinks.

Why does a website using new gTLD fail?
Because it uses new gTLD.

Why does a website using .com succeed?
Because it uses .com.

Why does a website using .com fail?
Because it has poor content and few backlinks.


This kind of logic is called bias."

First and foremost, .ai isn't a gTLD, but more importantly: we see these patterns in the industry already, and it's not cherry-picking because we don't see the reverse happening; businesses are not jumping from the .com to the .ai.

But we don't even have to even have to limit ourselves to this industry:

Every serious business uses the .com. Do you drive a Telsa, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes, or Ford? These companies use .com. Is your phone a Samsung or Apple? Because both use .com. What search engine do you use and what TLD do they use? Are you active on social media sites like twitter.com, x.com, youtube, instagram.com, facebook.com, or reddit.com? What is the TLD of your registrar? What's the TLD of this site? Are you seeing the pattern?

If you own the .com then you own the brand. If you own fixture.ai then you'll ever only be "Fixture dot AI," but if you own fixture.com you'll be "Fixture." If someone says go to Fixture's website the gut reaction is "fixture.com," in other words, you do not have to specify what domain you use. And if someone else owns and uses the .com they'll thank you for the traffic that you're giving them.

This is even more important if you ever want to expand beyond AI some day.

.com is a mark of provenance. There is no substitute.

 

[BocaVision]

Of course, but if you are Cloudflare you still use cloudflare.com, not flare.cloud or anything like that. Likewise, Open AI is openai.com, not open.ai.

Even those who started with .ai are transitioning to .com. Katalon AI was originally katalon.ai, now it's katalon.com.

At best .ai is a steppingstone. But what's going to happen when all serious AI businesses use the .com instead of the .ai, and all the .ai are small or failed projects? Well...people with AI projects will want the .com over the .ai.

No to mention that when AI becomes properly integrated into the current infrastructure there'll be no need to specify that it's AI. I mean we don't call websites "https-websites," even though they rely https-protocol because it's inferred that all (well managed sites) use the https-protocol.

MKA -- I never specifically mentioned .ai

.com is the gold standard. 95% of my portfolio is .com.

Tho several major "AI-centric" companies raising billions use .ai -- Inflection.ai, Runway.ai, Perplexity.ai Character.ai, InWorld.ai Harvey.ai Stability.ai, etc --

When I say, "AI-centric domains," I refer to these examples: LanguageModels (.com) OpenGPT (.com) LLMApps (.com) GenLM (.com) Multimodal (.com) ImagesLM (.com) GPTApp (.com), Agent (.com), etc --

None of those examples contain "ai."

 

[SixFigures.ltd]

businesses are not jumping from the .com to the .ai.

Not every business is an AI, and of course a lot of AI-related biz using an .ai domain, why domain speculators jump in the ai-bandwagon then?

If you own the .com then you own the brand

Rick Schwartz, is that you? Tell this to Durov's Telegram(.org). It's almost 2024, you should be definitely inexperienced internet user if you don't visit non-com sites.

 

[paul10]

First and foremost, .ai isn't a gTLD, but more importantly: we see these patterns in the industry already, and it's not cherry-picking because we don't see the reverse happening; businesses are not jumping from the .com to the .ai.

But we don't even have to even have to limit ourselves to this industry:

Every serious business uses the .com. Do you drive a Telsa, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes, or Ford? These companies use .com. Is your phone a Samsung or Apple? Because both use .com. What search engine do you use and what TLD do they use? Are you active on social media sites like twitter.com, x.com, youtube, instagram.com, facebook.com, or reddit.com? What is the TLD of your registrar? What's the TLD of this site? Are you seeing the pattern?

If you own the .com then you own the brand. If you own fixture.ai then you'll ever only be "Fixture dot AI," but if you own fixture.com you'll be "Fixture." If someone says go to Fixture's website the gut reaction is "fixture.com," in other words, you do not have to specify what domain you use. And if someone else owns and uses the .com they'll thank you for the traffic that you're giving them.

This is even more important if you ever want to expand beyond AI some day.

.com is a mark of provenance. There is no substitute.

It is obvious the .com still remains the king , but if my business is Ai related i better use short,simple and one-word domain . ai than one long many words .com domain. The exact keyword one-word or two-word .com premium domains are all gone or already in use by one business. and if you must use those premium .com be ready to spend huge amount.