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Ask HN: Which is better - a 4 letter .org or a longer .com?

2 points by AliAdams ↗ HN
We have set up a small company with a 4 letter name (say for the sake of our bandwidth it is called "Hido"), aimed at an international audience.

Currently we have "HidoUni.com" (it is university related) but have come across an opportunity to buy Hido.org from a seller. A large international company holds Hido.com and I'm a little concerned they may grab the .org if it goes up for sale.

We are only starting up however and don't have a lot of money as yet to being to just buy the domain without having a good reason to and I'm trying to decide whether there is a good case or not. So I thought I would ask the experts and see what your opinions were.

(Also - Arguably, a .org tld would be applicable for the nature of the company but I'm not sure whether such a perception is maintained internationally.)

What do you think?

Ali

6 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 31.2 ms ] thread
steventruong
It would be a good asset to have irregardless of the .com vs .org debate BUT spending money you can't afford to spend when the future of your company is completely uncertain (I'm assuming base on what you wrote) is not necessarily a smart move as awesome as the opportunity may be. Unless you've already launched, have clear traction, etc, you might just spend money on a domain for a startup that may not exist a few months from now.

I can't speak for others but my personal opinion is try to get traction with the company first and then decide whether or not you can afford to acquire the name. Most startups don't survive long enough to worry about what their name ends up being.

AliAdams
Thanks for the reply Steven,

Just to give you a bit of information on that front, as that is something I didn't think to mention:

The company has been under development for almost 1 year part time and about 8 months full time now - we are in the end stages of VC + Angel funding with reasonably confident plans for at least the next 5 years' growth.

AliAdams
(Also, I'm the only 'tech' person on the team and am having a bit of a hard time justifying the spend at the minute...)
steventruong
That's a lot of development time for an MVP. Are you guys launched? I should note that you should throw away your 5 year plans. Things change so much from so many angles in a startup's lifecycle, I'd be very amazed if your 5 year plan actually play out exactly as you plan. I am very weary of any plan over 6 months not shifting or changing. A LOT can happen in 5 years. You should focus on great detail for the next 6-12 months at best and a grand vision out there. Any other plans will more than likely shift.
AliAdams
It's a slightly more complicated startup and highly seasonal so we haven't really gone down the MVP route. I only joined the team in November though when they started looking at implementation.

It's true - I suspect the 5 year plan is going to change a LOT (it's really only for the investors) - but I think that there should be reasonably certain longevity provided the last stages of setup work (if that was useful for the domain choice). Like you say though, we are really mainly focusing on the shorter term at the minute.

Hopefully it works!

Thanks for the help!

staunch
I think the only reason to get a .org or .net is for SEO purposes. This is what patio11 did with appointmentreminder.org

Since "hido" is obviously not going to bring you any SEO juice it's probably better to go for a longer .com

I don't really like HidoUni, or even having "Uni" anywhere in the name personally. To me it seems either deceptive or lame.

I'd probably go with HidoHQ.com or HidoAcadamy.com or something.

Good luck!