Segment (YC S11) Raises $15 Million Series A • Hacker News Board

Re: Segment (YC S11) Raises $15 Million Series A

#11

Post by ryanSrich » Wed, Oct 08, 2014, 4:33 PM UTC

rmac wrote: post #9

Why drop the .io and spend cash on the .com?I'd guess it was somewhere in the 10k-60k range... Does the tld really matter? My hunch is that .io is perceived as a toy product TLD and .com is where 'real' business is done? This kind of sentiment sucks though because other startups probably see it as well and will needlessly shell out cash for a .com.

Outside of the tech field everything but a .com is viewed negatively.

When I worked for clients they used to really push hard for a .com. They'd rather have a 25 character .com than use anything else. My guess is that they only trust .com.

Re: Segment (YC S11) Raises $15 Million Series A

#12

Post by pkrein » Wed, Oct 08, 2014, 4:35 PM UTC

rmac wrote: post #9

Why drop the .io and spend cash on the .com?I'd guess it was somewhere in the 10k-60k range... Does the tld really matter? My hunch is that .io is perceived as a toy product TLD and .com is where 'real' business is done? This kind of sentiment sucks though because other startups probably see it as well and will needlessly shell out cash for a .com.

your hunch is correct. as engineers we're attached to .io ourselves, but outside the developer community .io invites confusion -- as we grow, .com is simpler.

we spent 10.5k :)

Re: Segment (YC S11) Raises $15 Million Series A

#13

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 08, 2014, 4:38 PM UTC

rmac wrote: post #9

Why drop the .io and spend cash on the .com?I'd guess it was somewhere in the 10k-60k range... Does the tld really matter? My hunch is that .io is perceived as a toy product TLD and .com is where 'real' business is done? This kind of sentiment sucks though because other startups probably see it as well and will needlessly shell out cash for a .com.

[deleted]

Re: Segment (YC S11) Raises $15 Million Series A

#14

Post by toddynho » Wed, Oct 08, 2014, 4:44 PM UTC

pkrein wrote: post #12

rmac wrote: post #9

Why drop the .io and spend cash on the .com?I'd guess it was somewhere in the 10k-60k range... Does the tld really matter? My hunch is that .io is perceived as a toy product TLD and .com is where 'real' business is done? This kind of sentiment sucks though because other startups probably see it as well and will needlessly shell out cash for a .com.

your hunch is correct. as engineers we're attached to .io ourselves, but outside the developer community .io invites confusion -- as we grow, .com is simpler. we spent 10.5k :)

That is a fabulous deal. Whomever handled that negotiation/purchase deserves some donuts.

Re: Segment (YC S11) Raises $15 Million Series A

#15

Post by wclax04 » Wed, Oct 08, 2014, 4:45 PM UTC

pkrein wrote: post #12

rmac wrote: post #9

Why drop the .io and spend cash on the .com?I'd guess it was somewhere in the 10k-60k range... Does the tld really matter? My hunch is that .io is perceived as a toy product TLD and .com is where 'real' business is done? This kind of sentiment sucks though because other startups probably see it as well and will needlessly shell out cash for a .com.

your hunch is correct. as engineers we're attached to .io ourselves, but outside the developer community .io invites confusion -- as we grow, .com is simpler. we spent 10.5k :)

Thanks for sharing the cost.

Re: Segment (YC S11) Raises $15 Million Series A

#16

Post by mmahemoff » Wed, Oct 08, 2014, 4:53 PM UTC

aroch wrote: post #3

I wonder how much of that 15m was spent to buy the .com domain? Interestingly the domain was registered by DomainsByProxy, why is a real company hiding their contact info behind DomainsByProxy? That being said, I've used them for a little over a year and a half now and am quite pleased. The "one stop shop" for integrating all the analytics and email stuff is great

Usually proxied domains are offered free for the first year and the checkbox tends to be turned on by default. I doubt they gave it much thought.

Re: Segment (YC S11) Raises $15 Million Series A

#17

Post by MisterBastahrd » Wed, Oct 08, 2014, 4:54 PM UTC

ryanSrich wrote: post #11

rmac wrote: post #9

Why drop the .io and spend cash on the .com?I'd guess it was somewhere in the 10k-60k range... Does the tld really matter? My hunch is that .io is perceived as a toy product TLD and .com is where 'real' business is done? This kind of sentiment sucks though because other startups probably see it as well and will needlessly shell out cash for a .com.

Outside of the tech field everything but a .com is viewed negatively. When I worked for clients they used to really push hard for a .com. They'd rather have a 25 character .com than use anything else. My guess is that they only trust .com.

Well, dot net has a historical connotation to being used by companies that shared a name with a larger, more reputable company and dot org is for charities. Dot com is simply what people are most likely to remember. This doesn't matter so much if all you're doing is running a mobile app, but when you've got a site to worry about, the domain extension matters.

Re: Segment (YC S11) Raises $15 Million Series A

#18

Post by rbinv » Wed, Oct 08, 2014, 4:55 PM UTC

pkrein wrote: post #12

rmac wrote: post #9

Why drop the .io and spend cash on the .com?I'd guess it was somewhere in the 10k-60k range... Does the tld really matter? My hunch is that .io is perceived as a toy product TLD and .com is where 'real' business is done? This kind of sentiment sucks though because other startups probably see it as well and will needlessly shell out cash for a .com.

your hunch is correct. as engineers we're attached to .io ourselves, but outside the developer community .io invites confusion -- as we grow, .com is simpler. we spent 10.5k :)

That's actually a pretty good price.

Re: Segment (YC S11) Raises $15 Million Series A

#19

Post by mblevin » Wed, Oct 08, 2014, 4:55 PM UTC

Congrats guys. As a Segment partner, we love that people can "take the Pepsi challenge" in terms of other analytics platforms. Helps prevent lock in and forces companies to continue to push value and differentiation vs relying on "ugh I guess we'll keep XYZ because ripping out the integration is such a pain"

Re: Segment (YC S11) Raises $15 Million Series A

#20

Post by markolschesky » Wed, Oct 08, 2014, 5:01 PM UTC

rmac wrote: post #9

Why drop the .io and spend cash on the .com?I'd guess it was somewhere in the 10k-60k range... Does the tld really matter? My hunch is that .io is perceived as a toy product TLD and .com is where 'real' business is done? This kind of sentiment sucks though because other startups probably see it as well and will needlessly shell out cash for a .com.

Someone recently asked me what country our company that had an .io domain was located in. Explaining that it was shorthand for input/output and that it was a tech thing was lost on them.