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How and why we acquired our .com domain

advaitruia.com

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Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#111

Post by vdqtp3 »

jbc1 wrote: post #78
querez wrote: post #34

Slightly off-topic, but: Gandi was my registrar of choice, but I read some months ago that they've sold out. Who do people go to these days for registering domain names?

Even more off topic: A lot of very large companies (eg. Google, Reddit, Microsoft) use Mark Monitor as their registrar rather than either being their own registrar or using one of the providers everyone else does. Anyone know what they're getting that makes that particular company so appealing?

Domain security services. Autoregistration and/or identification of domain typo registration, alternate TLDs, etc...stuff that doesn't matter unless you have very deep pockets and are a juicy bait or target.

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#112

Post by vdqtp3 »

advaitruia wrote: post #96
CharlesW wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting, and I wish the author would've dug into that more. The claim is that people were typing .com when searching for them, but a search would've resulted in a search page, not direct traffic. As far as direct traffic, they migrated to .com on 1/15/23, at which point supertokens.com already had 1,473 referring domains and 16.6K backlinks. I think it's more likely that the traffic they saw was the result…

The claim is that we saw traffic patterns on the .com mirror that of the .io even though nothing was on it yet and we had not migrated. Our inference or best guess based on the above is that people were typing supertokens.com directly in the URL bar on the browser. Like you said - I would not have expected that (and still doubt it) but dont have any alternative explanations for why that would be the case. Our agency…

Or typing "supertokens"

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#113

Post by acherion »

naet wrote: post #108
arbitrandomuser wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are online domain name searche sites untrustworthy ?

Some domain companies will buy the domains you searched and try to resell them for a premium. Happened to me just a few months ago. I was using a GoDaddy search since it seemed like a useful way to bulk search some tlds for what I wanted. Looked up a few things that I'm almost 100% sure nobody else was looking for since they were very unique. Didn't buy them that day, but spent a while browsing them using the GoDaddy…

So GoDaddy still does this, huh? I was stung in the very same way over 15 years ago, looks like their business practices haven't changed much since.

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#114

Post by teddyh »

querez wrote: post #34

Slightly off-topic, but: Gandi was my registrar of choice, but I read some months ago that they've sold out. Who do people go to these days for registering domain names?

Like I frequently¹ advise²:

Don’t look to large, well-known registrars. I would suggest that you look for local registrars in your area. The TLD registry for your country/area usually has a list of the authorized registrars, so you can simply search that for entities with a local address.

Disclaimer: I work at such a small registrar, but you are not in our target market.

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32095499

2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32507784

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#115

Post by iudqnolq »

canadiantim wrote: post #9

Honestly the key is to be patient. Put it a low-ball offer on a .com you want then wait. They'll reject initially, then they'll contact you again every couple months to see if you're still interested. Keep the low-ball offers going, maybe increasing by very small increments. Eventually you will catch them in a moment where the seller is desperate and then you strike a deal. I got a 6 letters .com domain for $3k down…

In this specific case the broker had a good counterargument: If the seller googled "SuperTokens" they'd find SuperTokens.io and realize the buyer had VC funding and an investment in the brand. The broker convincingly argued it wasn't worth quibbling over a few thousand dollars if it risked the seller realizing they could ask for tens of thousands more and have a decent chance of getting it.

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#116

Post by iudqnolq »

lostlogin wrote: post #79
thrtythreeforty wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the broker got paid for his advice on not poking the bear. That could easily have saved $4k.

But the asking price was $8k - you’d have to go in very hot to get yourself a 50% price rise (which would justify the broker’s fee in this instance). However I am aware of how squatters behave, so this could actually happen.

The risk was that the seller would realize the buyer was a company with VC money and an investment in the name. The broker thought that the seller might ask for an order of magnitude more if they knew that.

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#117

Post by unwind »

advaitruia wrote: post #96
CharlesW wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting, and I wish the author would've dug into that more. The claim is that people were typing .com when searching for them, but a search would've resulted in a search page, not direct traffic. As far as direct traffic, they migrated to .com on 1/15/23, at which point supertokens.com already had 1,473 referring domains and 16.6K backlinks. I think it's more likely that the traffic they saw was the result…

The claim is that we saw traffic patterns on the .com mirror that of the .io even though nothing was on it yet and we had not migrated. Our inference or best guess based on the above is that people were typing supertokens.com directly in the URL bar on the browser. Like you said - I would not have expected that (and still doubt it) but dont have any alternative explanations for why that would be the case. Our agency…

Not being into web development at all, how can you see "traffic patterns" for a domain you do not own or control?

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#118

Post by tomas789 »

garganzol wrote: post #54
evanmoran wrote: post #43

Curious for fellow founders with the .com, how many of you defensively buy the .net, .org names as well? I find it hard to resist getting at least those three if I'm settled on a name/brand.

Those specific additional domains are useful in their own ways. .net is good for network infrastructure, .org is good for organizational purposes like mapping your office/LAN endpoints into it, so that employees could connect to VPNs and internal services like SCM and build servers. Other than that, additional domains also give leverage for diversification if you decide to make them publicly visitable one day.

I'd suggest to not use this technique as it gets quite confusing for others. You have to connect to something and you don't know whether it is .com, .org or what else. It is common to use different dummy names like githubusercontent.com and so. You can easily grab a random name like this and is way less confusing.

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#119

Post by tomas789 »

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #89

I'm so surprised that squatting on tens of thousands of domains is still allowed, after decades of squatters being a problem. Have any proposals for dealing with this gotten any traction?

In our country we have a problem with exchanges giving horrendous rates to tourists (like 16 for 1 EUR instead of fair 24). Governor of central bank was asked why they don't stop it. He replied that they in theory could but seems like people are using such services and if they intervene then they are disrupting a free market. They are offering a service and they have customers. Should they stop them just because they have high margins?

What I want to say is that I don't like this practice either but should we cancel businesses just because we don't like them? They are not stealing or anything. I'd say they are in a light grey business but for sure not black.

And I guess there is a bright side to this all too. At least for large-ish businesses. If nissan.com was owned by domain squatter then they would sell it to Nisan for 1M or something and both sides would be happy.

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#120

Post by kwanbix »

"100% of the top 20 YC companies by valuation have the .com of their name. 94% of the top 50 do. But only 66% of companies in the current batch have the .com of their name. Which suggests there are lessons ahead for most of the rest, one way or another"

Isn't it expected that when you make it to the top (being for example a top 20 YC company by valuation) you go out and buy the .com? What would be interesting to know is, how many of the top 20 or top 50 started with .com.

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