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Ask HN: Would you launch a startup with .xyz TLD?

8 points by Yabood ↗ HN
We came up with a name that we really like and were able to register the .io and .xyz TLDs. The problem is that the .io is used almost exclusively by tech companies (we're building a social media management platform) and the .xyz is only two years old. The .com is available for sale, they're asking $1500 for it (down from 3K). I'm really reluctant to drop 1.5K on the .com version, but also worried/not fully convinced about using .io or .xyz. Would really appreciate any input on this. Thanks in advance!

18 comments

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abricot
If your target group are the type of people who still types www in front of every url it would recommend to go for the .com

If not, go for the .io at least a lot of reputable sites are using that.

Haven't seen anyone using .xyz in marketing yet.

nsebban
Contrary to popular belief, your TLD isn't that important. Keep in mind most people will get to your website by following links, and rarely by typing the URL.

Focus on your service's quality more than your TLD. You won't regret it.

robtaylor
I agree on the latter about service and quality.

However... would you trust payment on a .info, .biz etc names?

Some have more trust than others - Nominet do a fair bit of work in the .UK namespace to build that itself to a trustmark. If only someone was doing that internationally!

eb0la
I digress on the TLD part. If your users are DESKTOP users, TLDs are not so important.

If they are mobile users, they can type ".com" on their on-screen keyboard.

If they don't remember the domain, they will go to Google and you might have some trouble with people advertising on top of your #1 positiom...

... which will happen only if you're successful, of course.

I totally agree on this: you should focus son the product, not on the name. People will buy your product - name changes are more frequent than we think.

SyneRyder
Don't use XYZ. Because of recent $1 sales on XYZ domains, they're being snapped up by spammers, and there is so much spam coming from them that one of my most effective spam filters is flagging anything from a .xyz domain. I don't think I've ever had a false positive. I have the same issue with spam from .top and .pro TLDs as well.

IO should be fine. There's enough legit tech companies using .io now that it shouldn't have too much reputation risk. Maybe start out with the .io until you're generating enough revenue to drop $1.5K or $3K on the .com.

wingerlang
I'm not really a "startuper/entreprenour" but I can tell you as a costumer that I'd never take anything serious with an .xyz domain.
KhalPanda
Not unless your startup is called 'abc'.
eb0la
Get a domain where Google is an accredited registrar (.com/.org/.net/etc..) and extend registration for 5+ years.

But don't buy a 1.5K domain before securing the twitter handle and facebook page FIRST.

jfoster
Is it so important that the Facebook page and Twitter handle match the domain precisely? I feel there are a bunch of things (eg. @DomainDotCom) you can do with those. The domain is the one that will impact your business if you don't get it right.
eb0la
For SEO it's not critical; but for users it is. Think about your domain, twitter account, and FB page as trademarks. Actually, they should be trademarked sooner or later.

Don't buy a domain without a match or near match in twitter / facebook (like $domainname + "app" or something like that).

I don't do it.

Yabood
matching handles were long gone, but I was able to get the exact name + inc at the end, which is good enough.
nischalhp
I am a co-founder of a company which has .xyz domain. We had a clear idea why we got .xyz domain but after 3-4 months of registration, we started seeing some issues with the domain. For starters, the visa office was unable to open our website to check the authenticity of our company before issuing visas for us to travel as their firewall had banned .xyz domain.

Some of our emails always was marked as spam when we were using it for marketing.

Thankfully, because of our organic growth .xyz did not hinder us too much but I personally think it will take a good time before .xyz is being used by commercial companies and hence I would suggest you to refrain from buying a .xyz domain for now.

Yabood
Thank you, this is really helpful. I think we'll just go ahead and cough up the $1500 to acquire the .com version.
zachlatta
I'd recommend the same. We paid around the same for hackclub.com and it was definitely worth it (we started with hackclub.io).
GFischer
I would use .io - that said, I'm using .tv for my own project (video related), and I understand the extreme pain of trying to come up with a good name that's not yet widespread and is available.
LarryMade2
how about .net? - network is more sociable sounding than .xyz
Yabood
Not available and not for sale.
anilgulecha
As many of the new TLDs are now finding out, nothing beats .com for user attention. Make up a word, or use a longer domain, but .com (and maybe .io due to their early launch and high-price) are the way to go.