YC startups are abandoning .com • Hacker News Board

Re: YC startups are abandoning .com

#31

Post by xhkkffbf » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 3:11 PM UTC

405126121 wrote: post #21

CollinEMac wrote: post #13

I thought .dev and .app would be more popular actually. The rapid increase in .ai makes sense though.

From personal experience .dev is a little weird. For one thing its on the HSTS preload list, enforcing https. You cannot make a http://... request to a .dev domain from most browsers. I found this out the hard way after trying to use .dev for... development.

That's a deal breaker for me. Who has the time to set up full crypto protocols when just noodling around?

Re: YC startups are abandoning .com

#32

Post by CodesInChaos » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 3:13 PM UTC

Which gTLDs are reliable besides the classics (com, net, org,...)? By that I mean that the TLD owner won't screw you over a few years from now, for example by raising prices?

I kind of like the idea to use .com for the marketing site, and .app for the actual web-app.

Re: YC startups are abandoning .com

#33

Post by jdw64 » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 3:14 PM UTC

.com — in RFC 920, it originally meant 'commercial.' But come to think of it, a lot of recent startups seem to be selling things that aren't really commercial at all. So maybe they're actually heading in the right direction.

Re: YC startups are abandoning .com

#34

Post by dhosek » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 3:15 PM UTC

charlieyu1 wrote: post #11

mojuba wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, and nothing will ever match the "prestige" of .com .ai is also kind of cool right now but it will probably lose its appeal after some years when everything will become AI and the world will get tired of the term. But .com is still at the top of the food chain. If you can survive for a few years, raise your series A/B, you will likely have enough money to acquire your sexy single-word .com name.

Just found out the great ol’ command.com is taken by somebody random

Many of the “good” simple names were grabbed by folks when registration was free in th 90s.

I’m still annoyed that thanks to a missed payment, I lost quixote.com.

Re: YC startups are abandoning .com

#35

Post by closetheloopdev » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 3:15 PM UTC

nadis wrote: post #30

codegeek wrote: post #16

.ai is the new .io but nothing will beat .com. Even Paul Graham has said that.

Lest we forget, the PG essay: https://paulgraham.com/name.html

While reading the essay, I could not stop thinking about the literal "X" company which was formerly known as Twitter :D. It's like X is no longer a variable but a constant.

Re: YC startups are abandoning .com

#36

Post by CodesInChaos » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 3:16 PM UTC

benatkin wrote: post #14

rvz wrote: post #4

At the end of the day, .com will still remain the most valuable and all startups will grow up into buying a .com

Counter-example: Alphabet doesn't have alphabet.com

They have google.com, which is the brand they use towards customers. The Alphabet brand is little more than a stock ticker.

Re: YC startups are abandoning .com

#37

Post by applfanboysbgon » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 3:16 PM UTC

robin_reala wrote: post #22

DanielHB wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh god my company just switched to .io and that was a huge PITA. I hope we don't go .ai...

You just switched to .io knowing that it might be decommissioned in the not-too-distant future?

It would shock me if that domain were actually allowed to be killed off by pure bureaucracy. I would like to believe that at some point bureaucracy must give way to concerns for the humans it serves, and if nothing else there is enough money involved with the industry that uses it that they'll probably be able to lobby effectively, one way or another.

Re: YC startups are abandoning .com

#38

Post by cma » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 3:16 PM UTC

"A recent YC startup spent 250k on a domain. I was slightly shocked. But when I asked how much they raised after YC, the answer was 6.5m. So 1/26 of their round. This is the time we live in; one shocking number counterbalances the other."

https://x.com/paulg/status/2083628660708561075

Was that a .xyz?

Re: YC startups are abandoning .com

#39

Post by gumby » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 3:17 PM UTC

jeffyaw wrote: post #26

thm wrote: post #18

Anything other than a .com for a commercial site screams gimmick and immediately strips away most of its credibility. Go .com or go home.

this sounds like you're stuck in 2010.

Nope: it surprised me too, but we did a small survey and unless you’re a nerd, anything not ending in either com or your own nation’s TLD structure is considered dodgy and/or hard to type (.co being a notorious case — people type .com instead).

This is mitigated slightly by the fact that people don’t use URIs much any more and even if they do they usually type something into a search bar or chat bot which DWIMs what they typed anyway.

Re: YC startups are abandoning .com

#40

Post by layer8 » Wed, Aug 12, 2026, 3:19 PM UTC

jeffyaw wrote: post #24

charlieyu1 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe. Still wild to find startups getting millions can’t afford to buy a .com domain

it's not that they can't afford to buy one. it's that they're not available. and now a lot of other tlds have gained traction so it's now reasonable to consider others.

I would assume that for most foo.ai domains, foo-ai.com would also be available. So it’s more about naming preferences, and sometimes lack of imagination for coming up with an available name.