analysis No XYZ... .COM is KING! Analyzed the URL patterns of over 2 million Crunchbase listed companies.

[Digital Nomad]

SquadHelp Founder & CEO Darpan shared a nice graph with the TLD Usage of over 2 million Crunchbase listed companies. What stands out, that there is no XYZ in the list which must be less than 0.29%.

.COM is clearly the KING towering the graph like a skyscraper with a whopping 63.17%.

Source: Twitter

 

[bmugford]

Seems like you are spending way too much time at Poker Night with Mike Mann and Rick Schwartz ...

Traffic leakage ?

It’s a myth that was spread by Verisign in order to convert .extension owners to .com ... thus to depreciate the market share of new .extensions altogether

If there was traffic leaking, then why would Verisign even consider the notion of investing in new .extensions ... the paid $100,000,000 in 1999 over a 20 year period for contract rights to own .tv

Then the contract ended, .tv is now owned by GoDaddy

Verisign was caught using a shell company a couple years ago, Nu Dot Co to acquire .web for $135,000,000 USD ...

Do you wanna see the contract ?

You wanna see how Afilias offered Verisign a bribe of $17.5M to abandon the auction that ICANN hosted ... Verisign declined, offered to sell Afilias .health ... Afilias countered and said “sell it to Donuts” ...

Now why would a company like Verisign who has a $200 a share stock invest in new technology or new .extensions “knowing” that there is domain leakage and could “negatively” effect business’

Honestly, please tell me ^ because either Verisign knows that there is domain leakage and doesn’t give a $hit and doesn’t tell the consumer and that’s fraud or Verisign doesn’t acknowledge domain leakage (because) it doesn’t exist ... the only person that ever discusses domain leakage is pro .com investors who made their money off .com (so) why would they feel the need to support any new .extensions ... Or it’s some company like Overstock who has been trying to get their hands on O.com ever since it was announced, funny thing, the name is for sale ^ Verisign refuses to sell O.com because they cannot profit off the proceeds ... please bring in the downvotes while you’re @ at, I have my SEO certification (so) I kinda have a good idea of what I’m talking about here,

I for one have never met a single person in the last 5 years who has mistaken a new .extension and replaced it with a .com (but) maybe it’s my fault, maybe I’m hanging with only intelligent people who can see and think for themselves ...

https://shop.app

https://shop.com

One name is worth $10,000,000 + because “we” say so / the other - shop.app is owned by Shopify, they paid $200,000 for the name ... shop.app is ranking by 300% above shop.com ... what gives ?

https://cash.com

https://cash.me

One is hand registered, one is worth $10,000,000 + ... one is ranking by 1000% over the .com and represents one of the most powerful P2P platforms in the states ... if they wanted to ^ they could write a check and buy the .com / they don’t though ...

And so I say again, domain leakage ? If there was domain leakage, why are the ranking numbers in the favor of the non .com domains ...

Let me answer that ^ because there is no domain leakage and if you can effectively and properly market your company, no consumer is going to confuse your company ... (only) someone who doesn’t go online often ... the older generation

Best catchup

https://bitcoin.org

https://ethereum.org

https://twitch.com >>> https://twitch.tv

https://apple.watch >>> https://apple.com

https://block.xyz

The internet is constantly growing and changing ! Invest in good names that make sense, and can be tied to valuable industries.

And if one makes the other more valuable, where is the problem, there is none.

I am not going to address every point, but traffic leakage is certainly a thing.

It is likely to be far worse with some extensions more than others.
For instance confusingly similar extensions like .CO vs .COM. Ask Overstock how that worked out.

O.co loses 61% of its traffic to O.com​

Patrick Byrne told financial analysts yesterday that “O.co was my bad call” and that “about eight out of 13 people who were trying to visit us through O.co, eight were typing O.com”
It’s not clear what the source of the data is, or why the measurement given was out of 13, but it works out to 61%.

Byrne noted that people may have typed o.co instead after figuring out that o.com doesn’t work – it’s currently reserved, alongside most other single-letter .com domains, by Verisign.
His comments came as Overstock reported 2011 revenue down 3% to $1.05 billion and fourth-quarter revenue down 10% to $314 million.

Brad

 

[bmugford]

SquadHelp Founder & CEO Darpan shared a nice graph with the TLD Usage of over 2 million Crunchbase listed companies. What stands out, that there is no XYZ in the list which must be less than 0.29%.

.COM is clearly the KING towering the graph like a skyscraper with a whopping 63.17%.


Show attachment 226802
Source: Twitter


Show attachment 226803

The results are not really that surprising to me.

.XYZ seems to have an outsized influence in the domain investment world more than in real world usage.
I see the sales and development articles, but I have still never seen one advertised in my everyday life.

If a .COM is sold or developed it barely makes news, as it is so common.

I have said this is in the past but in my view really only .COM / .ORG / and popular ccTLD are likely the first choice of an end user. The rest (even .NET) are generally "settling" options for what is available.

Brad

 

[Digital Nomad]

How can you compare .xyz or any new .extension to .com - “based” on popular vote of business’ naming their company, especially companies on crunchbase ...

new .extensions are not for the companies that have been around for many many years who were brainwashed into believing only one .extension that existed

Well what’s the problem with that ?

2,000,000,000 websites online, how do you propose to restrict them all to .com

Even Verisign thinks the idea is ludicrous, hence they’ve secretly been purchasing new .extension rights and telling their shareholders they are running out of .com domains to sell and will need to introduce new “cough” .markets to continue growing the value of Verisign as a whole

How long has .com been around ?

How long has .xyz been around ?

How long did it take .com to hit a six figure sale on the “aftermarket” ...

How long did it take .xyz to hit a six figure sale on the “aftermarket” ...

These are the questions one should be asking to see the correlation in future value between both respective .extensions

How long has .NET been around? .COM is still KING

I'm not saying XYZ or any other extension old or new will not make you money, having a mega super premium one word or one letter making sense with the extension, is great to own, I wouldn't mind owning them too, but the majority of companies and start ups still love .COM right now, there is no arguing with that.

PS developing any other extension will leak traffic to the .COM making it even more valuable.

 

[Fancy.domains]

Obviously .COM is the undisputed king of extensions. We domainers all know that as a fact.

But for me, as a full-time domainer, i don't care if I sell a .COM, a .XYZ or even a .HORSE, it's the total profit that matters, so I can "put food on the table".

I make most of my profit for the so called new gTLD's. Others make them from selling .COMs.

 

[Digital Nomad]

The first domain was actually a .net.

Nordu.net predates every .com domain.

Brad

Exactly, and yet .COM is the KING, so I don't believe any other extension will ever surpass .COM no matter the time.

 

[bmugford]

Trust me, that was my respectful statement ... I have no care in the world for anyone who cannot think critically for themselves ... the world is full of people who follow “the normal” because that’s all they know ... you can do with that what you will ...

So if someone doesn't agree with you, they "cannot think critically"?

Some people have a difference of opinions. That is fine.
You need to relax a bit. You seem so offended by everything.

Brad

 

[Digital Nomad]

what I wrote to Nick wasn’t for you

Take care “when responding” to someone else, not sure why you felt the need to reply in reference to my salutations to them ...

That said, it is clearly obvious that the post is filled with pro .com investors hence not a single person took a look at the redacted document from Verisign I posted

And @bmugford “critical thinking” was postured towards @Sutruk (not) you, or anyone else for that matter ... I have no problem debating with reasonable investors with a different mentality but calling .com daddy is too cringe for my taste and chanting .com only while .com only (Verisign) invests in other .extensions is pretty fascinating to say the least

What I wrote was meant for you. And I created that title, so I will respond to your comment which was meant for me.

.COM is king no matter what anyone says, it is a fact. I am even happy for people having success with other extensions, I have stated that clearly many times with great sales in XYZ, nothing against people or critical minds or extensions etc., but rudeness and disrespect I won't tolerate. You have to respect the difference of opinions of others, don't attack them by calling names etc. anyways this is my last post to you.

The future is uncertain and things may change indeed. But when I see a great post and analysis, I'll post it, if you like the title or not, take care.

 

[Digital Nomad]

The results are not really that surprising to me.

.XYZ seems to have an outsized influence in the domain investment world more than in real world usage.
I see the sales and development articles, but I have still never seen one advertised in my everyday life.

If a .COM is sold or developed it barely makes news, as it is so common.

I have said this is in the past but in my view really only .COM / .ORG / and popular ccTLD are likely the first choice of an end user. The rest (even .NET) are generally "settling" options for what is available.

Brad

I was looking to buy some XYZ's, but I'll stick to .COM, this graph changed my mind, unless I can buy a really very good one word ultra premium very cheaply in XYZ, only then I'll take it for a nice ROI.

 

[Digital Nomad]

Has any King remained king forever? Go to history classes if you haven't been to one.

True true, nothing is forever, maybe not even domain names. But for now .COM is king.

 

[Digital Nomad]

You know critical thinking is a very important skill that the majority of the world lacks ... I believe that your words above emphasize that accordingly

And another important skill in life is to have respect and a peaceful mind.

 

[Digital Nomad]

& a few mo after com to ng ... November 2022: Amaze dot co acquires Spri dot ng
(a well known domain extension is indeed -must have-, but when you build something that's cool & useful and your customers base reach the magic number, ... no matter what kind of domain extension, every fund is looking (yawn) at you, Like wolves stalking prey. Maybe, a year or two after Spr.ing

Regards

Thanks for the info, I still want to see a list of atleast 50 if you can. BTW Did you mistype spr.ing on purpose?

 

[narek]

What matters is who is making money? Clearly XYZ owners are making money.

Only a few .XYZ owners are making money.

.COM owners are making a lot more.

The promotion of .XYZ by swetha and a couple more domainers put a lot of beginner domainers into a shi**y situation quite honestly.

 

[Digital Nomad]

My question, will foreign investors be more apt to adopt .XYZ (ie. Chinese crypto)? The rationale being, .COM is mostly viewed as staple Western TLD, while letters X,Y,Z are commonplace in the language. Any thoughts?

I believe China loves to invest .NET a lot (Edit: I think their country extension .CN is primary for them of course), but it still is nowhere near the towering .COM which is a global extension.

PS .CN is not in the graph most likely because Chinese companies are not listed on CrunchBase. But .CN seems to be in the top extensions registered.

 

[Digital Nomad]

but to me, i translate this geopolitically as - "US is King, so i dont believe any other country will ever surpass US no matter the time" - but we have China today, that has a larger economy that US.

.COM is king, but other alt extensions will grow stronger than it- also its prices are a deterrent that have encouraged use of so many other extensions- but its still king, thats true, but i really think that encourages black or white thinking in domaining, and i think that is irrelevant and risky to us - the domaining ecosystem suppers many succesful extensions- .COM is not a dictator and its losing market share even to other extensions and it cant satisfy all the demand for domain names - from availability, to prices, to suitability - demand and users needs are unique too.

I believe some other extensions like .CO, .IO, even .IN have higher ROI than .COM does.

China's .CN comes at second place, keep in mind this graph is not for the CrunchBase list I posted originally (I believe China does not list on there), but this graph is for all registered domain names (which includes investors and end-users), .US is not in the top, but .COM is and .CN second. And XYZ is in the top too, but I believe it's mostly investors registering these names and not companies/end-users using/developing them as much as .COM, making .COM the undisputed KING no matter what extension.

 

[NickB]

I think is very pertinent information - CrunchBase has the most in depth information on start up and VC funding out there........

It very clearly shows that when companies get/have funding that they prefer the .com extension - no matter how hard you try and muddy the waters....

You have literally gone on a rant about Verisign, total websites, 6 figure sales etc etc which has nothing to do with the data and thread topic.......

 

[Digital Nomad]

Technically .TK should be second on this list. They are free to register.
There are over 30M registered .TK, but has anyone actually even seen one in use or sold?

It just shows there is not really that much correlation between registrations and value.
I think there is far more correlation between usage and value.

.COM is more valuable because it is the most well known, used, and in many people's eyes credible extension to build something on.

Brad

Amen!

 

[bmugford]

And how much does it cost to educate the public? It may take many many years if not decades, while the .COM is already ingrained in the mind of billions of people all over the world, right now at this very moment.

No amount of education will matter if the public is not interested.
A lot of people just don't see thousands of new extensions as some massive upgrade/opportunity.

.COM doesn't need to advertise as it is seen in commerce by everyone every day.

Brad

 

[Digital Nomad]

Sorry, not going to do that. It's business. Another example - Teespring dot com to Spri dot ng

Regards

But they are still using the .com too.

 

[Digital Nomad]

In rebranding, the need to transition to the new brand name / domain / website a smooth transition rule is - maintain Authenticity and Control of the rebranding and Ease your customer journey as well.

Regards

My guess is they could not buy spring.com because it is already owned by another company, so they went with the domain hack spri.ng instead. PS it has almost been 2 years since the rebrand.

 

[NickB]

Only a few .XYZ owners are making money.

.COM owners are making a lot more.

The promotion of .XYZ by swetha and a couple more domainers put a lot of beginner domainers into a shi**y situation quite honestly.

People should not try and jump on a train when it has already left the station - I've no sympathy for people who over extend and invest more than they can afford to lose.....or makes them feel uncomfortable

It was obvious who owned the majority of good .xyz domains and they are (quite rightly) reaping the benefits

Pump the extension when they start to sell, release some of the less favourable ones on the aftermarket and pick up xxx - x,xxx for them and let everyone else reg the speculative scraps and you end up with a lot people out of pocket.......

I've got a few .xyz domains - nothing that will even come close to breaking the bank though......I like the odd bit of speculation......

If I owned the .com on some of these .xyz domains that been bought and developed I would be rubbing my hands as they will probably come a calling in the future.......

 

[bmugford]

but to me, i translate this geopolitically as - "US is King, so i dont believe any other country will ever surpass US no matter the time" - but we have China today, that has a larger economy that US.

.COM is king, but other alt extensions will grow stronger than it- also its prices are a deterrent that have encouraged use of so many other extensions- but its still king, thats true, but i really think that encourages black or white thinking in domaining, and i think that is irrelevant and risky to us - the domaining ecosystem suppers many succesful extensions- .COM is not a dictator and its losing market share even to other extensions and it cant satisfy all the demand for domain names - from availability, to prices, to suitability - demand and users needs are unique too.

I believe some other extensions like .CO, .IO, even .IN have higher ROI than .COM does.

.COM is used all over the world, not just in the .US.
COM or ccTLD are the dominant pair in most countries.

More new websites launch daily on .COM than on the rest of all the other gTLD combined.

Also, the US economy is still larger than China. As of 2021 the GDP is around 23T vs 17.5T, though no other countries are even close. No other country is over 5T.

There is clearly some value in top .XYZ terms on the resale market, but it doesn't change the fact that when it comes to overall usage, .XYZ is still extremely low.

Brad

 

[Digital Nomad]

Honestly, please tell me ^ because either Verisign knows that there is domain leakage and doesn’t give a $hit and doesn’t tell the consumer and that’s fraud or Verisign doesn’t acknowledge domain leakage (because) it doesn’t exist ...

Verisign wants the whole market and earns on registrations, thus the more registrations they get from investors and end-users the better, they don't care about leakage, they care about new registrations and renewals, but END-USERS DO CARE!

PS I've done a test to tell people to go to my domains with friends and family, I tell them to go to blablabla.NET and guess what most typed in blablabla.COM instead automatically, I don't care what Rick or anyone has to say but I keep an open mind, I do my own tests/research playing the domain game. O and also I've owned domains where the other extension was developed, but I owned the .COM, guess what, my parking revenue for those specific domains where HIGHer with lots of traffic, why? Leakage or luck?

 

[NickB]

Seems like you are spending way too much time at Poker Night with Mike Mann and Rick Schwartz ...

Traffic leakage ?

It’s a myth that was spread by Verisign in order to convert .extension owners to .com ... thus to depreciate the market share of new .extensions altogether

If there was traffic leaking, then why would Verisign even consider the notion of investing in new .extensions ... the paid $100,000,000 in 1999 over a 20 year period for contract rights to own .tv

Then the contract ended, .tv is now owned by GoDaddy

Verisign was caught using a shell company a couple years ago, Nu Dot Co to acquire .web for $135,000,000 USD ...

Do you wanna see the contract ?

You wanna see how Afilias offered Verisign a bribe of $17.5M to abandon the auction that ICANN hosted ... Verisign declined, offered to sell Afilias .health ... Afilias countered and said “sell it to Donuts” ...

Now why would a company like Verisign who has a $200 a share stock invest in new technology or new .extensions “knowing” that there is domain leakage and could “negatively” effect business’

Honestly, please tell me ^ because either Verisign knows that there is domain leakage and doesn’t give a $hit and doesn’t tell the consumer and that’s fraud or Verisign doesn’t acknowledge domain leakage (because) it doesn’t exist ... the only person that ever discusses domain leakage is pro .com investors who made their money off .com (so) why would they feel the need to support any new .extensions ... Or it’s some company like Overstock who has been trying to get their hands on O.com ever since it was announced, funny thing, the name is for sale ^ Verisign refuses to sell O.com because they cannot profit off the proceeds ... please bring in the downvotes while you’re @ at, I have my SEO certification (so) I kinda have a good idea of what I’m talking about here,

I for one have never met a single person in the last 5 years who has mistaken a new .extension and replaced it with a .com (but) maybe it’s my fault, maybe I’m hanging with only intelligent people who can see and think for themselves ...

https://shop.app

https://shop.com

One name is worth $10,000,000 + because “we” say so / the other - shop.app is owned by Shopify, they paid $200,000 for the name ... shop.app is ranking by 300% above shop.com ... what gives ?

https://cash.com

https://cash.me

One is hand registered, one is worth $10,000,000 + ... one is ranking by 1000% over the .com and represents one of the most powerful P2P platforms in the states ... if they wanted to ^ they could write a check and buy the .com / they don’t though ...

And so I say again, domain leakage ? If there was domain leakage, why are the ranking numbers in the favor of the non .com domains ...

Let me answer that ^ because there is no domain leakage and if you can effectively and properly market your company, no consumer is going to confuse your company ... (only) someone who doesn’t go online often ... the older generation

Best catchup

https://bitcoin.org

https://ethereum.org

https://twitch.com >>> https://twitch.tv

https://apple.watch >>> https://apple.com

https://block.xyz

The internet is constantly growing and changing ! Invest in good names that make sense, and can be tied to valuable industries.

And if one makes the other more valuable, where is the problem, there is none.

You seem to have mixed up traffic leakage with SEO.......

The Shopify and Cash examples you have given reflect rankings due to SEO.......while traffic leakage is when someone directly types in the URL and automatically types in .com instead of another extension, or sends an email.....which is a proven problem that has been flagged by numerous business owners.......

 

[Digital Nomad]

You seem to have mixed up traffic leakage with SEO.......

The Shopify and Cash examples you have given reflect rankings due to SEO.......while traffic leakage is when someone directly types in the URL and automatically types in .com instead of another extension, or sends an email.....which is a proven problem that has been flagged by numerous business owners.......

YES! And not to mention they spend lots of money on marketing too, while the .COM gets all the free traffic from them.