Market data
TLD policy & the aftermarket
The buyer-matched hierarchy that governs TLD choice, and the ground-truth numbers on buying a taken name.
The policy note
SUPERSEDES the old ".com-only forever" rule (relaxed 2026-08-27): .com fell to ~46% of YC startups and Placek calls .com just an area code. The NAME-quality bar (gate 0) is unchanged — this governs ONLY the TLD once a great name exists, and it is BUYER-MATCHED.
Ranked whitelist
In order of preference, once a great name exists.
| # | TLD | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | .com | The DEFAULT for any brand — plurality, highest type-in trust. |
| 2 | <name>qualifier.com | Strong second (get<name>.com / <name>hq.com). |
| 3 | .ai | For an AI-native brand — serious AI companies ship and stay on .ai. |
| 4 | .io | Dev-only. |
| 5 | .co | Weak. |
Blacklist
Never these, as a brand.
Evidence
- The reason .com matters for a money/mainstream buyer is NOT trust-at-checkout — that is folklore. No controlled study in 15+ years of CRO isolates TLD as a checkout/conversion variable.
- RECALL + TYPE-IN LEAKAGE [Med]: .com is correctly recalled 44% vs 25-33% for alternatives, and when people misremember a TLD they type .com 3.8x more than any other guess.
The aftermarket price distribution
Ground truth from recorded sales, not asking prices.
GROUND TRUTH = Bishopi's 480,667 .com sales Jan-2024 → May-2026 ($491M): 99.4% of ALL .com sales close UNDER $10,000. Distribution: <$100 = 31% (median $57) · $100-999 = 56% (median $255) · $1k-9,999 = 12% (median $1,975) · $10k-99k = 0.6% (median $15,508) · $100k+ = 0.04%. A decent one-word brandable .com realistically trades LOW-TO-MID FOUR FIGURES.
The buying playbook
- Anonymity is the price lever: NEVER inquire from a company email or reveal launch/funding — corporate identity = a 5-10x ask. Personal email, patient, unbothered, cite comps, never reveal budget.
- Walk-away is the whole leverage. Always Escrow.com (0.89-3.25%) for direct deals; independent commission-only brokers beat GoDaddy DBS ($99.99 + 20%) for stealth.
- Backorders: expiry → grace ~0-45d → redemption ~45-75d → pendingDelete 5d frozen → drop (Verisign deletes ~11:00-15:00 UTC). DropCatch: free to place, $59 only on success, 60-80% catch on moderately-competitive names. Triple-backorder (DropCatch + NameJet + Dynadot) ≈ 35% higher combined catch.
- When multiple backorders exist, a private auction opens: set a max ceiling BEFORE, do not chase.
- Paid premium is rational for a retainer/service business (the name amortises over $10k/mo clients) and was correctly REJECTED for unproven DTC brands — spend scales with validated stage.