“Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
More than half of YC startups don't have a dot com
61–70 of 109 posts
Re: More than half of YC startups don't have a dot com
#62What % are actively operating but don't have any website... not counting a placeholder "coming soon" page? I suspect the answer would be surprising.
> I suspect the answer would be surprising.
Seems like a paradox.
Re: More than half of YC startups don't have a dot com
#63I think this is honestly less about the notoriety of .com, and more about the lack of affordable and available domains for startups to purchase. Got a five letter named startup? That’ll cost you tens of thousands of dollars, IF you can even get it. Meanwhile there’s hundreds of gTLDs that you can buy a domain on for $10-$30/yr.
this, .com domains are an ego thing more than anything at this point. Why waste valuable money on a vanity thing rather than trying to fuel growth? I guess in the worst case somebody could try to trick potential customers but otherwise as an early startup you have bigger things to worry about than a domain name
They are artificially necessary in some cases.
I have a personal .com and a gTLD based domain. THis is mostly to retain control of mailflow (I use workspace but can always move it, and have in the past)
The number of services/online forms that wont accept a .email domain is still very high.
I would imagine at a business level this would be equally difficult, even if its just for B2B type transactions/relationships.
Re: More than half of YC startups don't have a dot com
#64This is a good thing IMO. There are hundreds of great TLDs [1] just sitting there that can help ease the gold rush and squatting problem with .com domains, but are not favored because historically non-.com websites have been associated with scams and low effort content rather than established brands. Hopefully more and more legit startups out there with a .horse their name will finally normalize such domains. 1. http…
I completely agree.
Back when the first wave of quirky TLDs was created, I remember a fair amount of HN users insisting there was no use case for them [0]. But I always thought our sense of normal would shift as time went on and new sites and apps became popular.
Re: More than half of YC startups don't have a dot com
#65From my perspective as a user, maybe someone who would visit your domain, I’m indifferent to the specific TLD used. You might be able to compose a clever word that grabs my attention, which I’ve seen a lot from .ly domains. However, from an email marketing perspective, TLDs are not interchangeable. Some TLDs (think .xyz) see a lot of abuse, tanking the reputation and deliverability for good actors using them too. So…
It may make sense to put bulk email on a completely separate domain anyway, so then you could do something like: example.tech exampletech.com That has it's own downsides if it confuses your users, but most email clients barely show sender addresses any more, so a lot of users may not even realize you're emailing from a different domain than you use for your website.
Doing support, if customer has subscribed for example.com, we will not associate support requests from @example.tech as legitimate…
Re: More than half of YC startups don't have a dot com
#66I think this is honestly less about the notoriety of .com, and more about the lack of affordable and available domains for startups to purchase. Got a five letter named startup? That’ll cost you tens of thousands of dollars, IF you can even get it. Meanwhile there’s hundreds of gTLDs that you can buy a domain on for $10-$30/yr.
I also believe that changing your domain after you build an user base is challenging from a UX perspective. Many users have saved their credentials on their browser's password manager, and if the domain changes, the auto fill didn't work anymore.
Courious about why Notion owns the .com but still using the .so.
Re: More than half of YC startups don't have a dot com
#67I think this is honestly less about the notoriety of .com, and more about the lack of affordable and available domains for startups to purchase. Got a five letter named startup? That’ll cost you tens of thousands of dollars, IF you can even get it. Meanwhile there’s hundreds of gTLDs that you can buy a domain on for $10-$30/yr.
Having a dotcom is a signal of the organization's wealth. If your company is worth $3B, and your cash position is good, spending 0.01% of your valuation on a dotcom ($300k) is a no brainer. It might add to your legitimacy and prestige (even if marginally) and it's an asset that will most likely increase in value over time.
If my company is every worth $3b then I'll think about buying the .com for $300k.
However right now $300k is much better spent on staff, hosting and other business things.
Re: More than half of YC startups don't have a dot com
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
this, .com domains are an ego thing more than anything at this point. Why waste valuable money on a vanity thing rather than trying to fuel growth? I guess in the worst case somebody could try to trick potential customers but otherwise as an early startup you have bigger things to worry about than a domain name
They are artificially necessary in some cases. I have a personal .com and a gTLD based domain. THis is mostly to retain control of mailflow (I use workspace but can always move it, and have in the past) The number of services/online forms that wont accept a .email domain is still very high. I would imagine at a business level this would be equally difficult, even if its just for B2B type transactions/relationships.
Can confirm. My .email is regularly reject even by my own country administration.
Re: More than half of YC startups don't have a dot com
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
this, .com domains are an ego thing more than anything at this point. Why waste valuable money on a vanity thing rather than trying to fuel growth? I guess in the worst case somebody could try to trick potential customers but otherwise as an early startup you have bigger things to worry about than a domain name
They are artificially necessary in some cases. I have a personal .com and a gTLD based domain. THis is mostly to retain control of mailflow (I use workspace but can always move it, and have in the past) The number of services/online forms that wont accept a .email domain is still very high. I would imagine at a business level this would be equally difficult, even if its just for B2B type transactions/relationships.
That is indeed true for gTLDs (I've experienced it with .online), but from my experience never the case for ccTLDs. Maybe .tk that is (or was) handed out for free, but I never had any problem with ccTLDs I've owned (.me, .dj, .sh).
So, .com isn't the only silver bullet, and from what I can tell from that chart, only .app and .tech may be somewhat affected.
Re: More than half of YC startups don't have a dot com
#70I picked up/resold a lot of expiring domains in 2008 when people couldn't hold on to them/stopped speculating. Made around $30K off some scripts that took expiring domains and parsed english words, grabbed the number of return results for those words in Google as well as cost per click and some other mojo to determine potential worth, pick up the decent ones and send emails to relevant companies. I'm no longer that scummy but I wonder if there will be an upturn of lapsed domain renewals this downturn? I'm guessing there's a ton of competition now (even from the Registrars) as even then I think a lot passed through Godaddy auctions or some such before dropping of.