There is no question that .AI domain names have become a hot topic of late. With considerable amounts of venture funding flowing into AI companies and established companies who embrace .AI, the number of .AI domain names being scooped up has grown. Tremendously. The NYTimes, among other mainstream publications, wrote about the windfall .AI domain name registrations and renewals is providing to the country of Anguilla since .AI is the ccTLD for Anguilla.
I recently published Andrew Miller’s thoughts on .AI domain names, and I wanted to share some of my own thoughts about them.
The growth of .AI reminds me of the growth of .XYZ domain names a few years ago. In that case, many crypto-related companies began acquiring .XYZ domain names for substantial amounts of money. Google’s parent – Alphabet – uses a .XYZ domain name. So does Block. I think .XYZ domain name sales prices hit a peak a year or two ago. Even I sold a .XYZ domain name – although I have not sold any more of them. Over the last year and a half – give or take – sales prices have seemingly fallen.
This also reminds me of .IO domain names. Many venture funded tech companies began buying and using .IO domain names. Similar to .AI, .IO is a ccTLD extension for the Indian Ocean territories. Fortune, among other mainstream publications, wrote about the extension and its ownership. I think .IO domain names hit a peak in 2021 or so.
This also reminds me of .CO, .ME, and .LY. Startups began using those domain names and others followed suit. Speculators bought these types of domain names en masse, and we saw many sales. The sales eventually peaked.
What seems to happen, over and over again, is that there are startups that use domain extensions, get notoriety, and others follow suit. Aftermarket sales prices rise. Domain investors speculate, and prices rise even more. I don’t think growth in registrations or aftermarket prices are sustainable over a long time.
With .AI domain names, my feeling is the rising prices makes these domain names unattainable for many startups. I believe many are choosing these alternative extensions because a brand match or even an off brand .com domain name is much more expensive than they can afford or is unavailable. As a result, they look to buy a domain name with a popular new extension to save money. These days, aftermarket prices for meaningful .AI domain names is very high – not to mention the premium annual renewal fees. They are no longer affordable for the vast majority of startups.
Startups are faced with the choice of spending a whole lot of money on a .AI domain name or buying a less than ideal, off-brand .AI domain name. For instance, instead of [example].ai, they are looking at get[example].ai or something along those lines. In many cases, even these names are already registered and only available on the aftermarket. Woof.
I’ve seen some comparisons of .AI to .Mobi. I can understand why people might point to that. Some people are conflating .AI domain names with AI technology since .Mobi was supposed to bring something new to the table. I don’t agree with this assessment. I think startups in the AI space are willing to use a .AI domain name because it’s a branding signal.
I recall the rush to buy .Mobi domain names, but I believe a great deal of that was fueled by speculators. I do not recall seeing many TechCrunch or Wired articles mentioning startups that were using .Mobi domain names. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t read a TechCrunch article about a funded startup using a .AI domain name. For instance, there was an article about an AI startup called Cyvl.ai that was published yesterday.
In my opinion, we are going to see demand decrease for .AI domain names within the next year or two. I also think we will see fewer larger sales. I don’t know when .AI domain sales or sales prices will peak, but I believe that is an eventuality. I own a handful of .AI domain names and would buy meaningful names at investable prices, but that ship seems to have sailed long ago.
Quite a few .AI domain investors seemed to have made out well. Those stories are always highlighted. I think many more who are trying to capitalize on the .AI domain rush are going to get burned. It has become expensive to acquire relevant .AI domain names, and the holding costs are considerable.
DotAI is essentially dotTV on steroids.
That is a pretty solid comparison.
It’s a marketing signal.
@David Agreed
Yes, but which also means it’s actually a good extension from the end user point of view, which is what mine is primarily.
No comparison to “mobi.”
I disagree with the .Mobi and .Ai comparison.
But I agree that .Ai will peak eventually. Similar to .io
.Xyz and .Mobi are more comparable because of core domainer speculation from the start.
I don’t recall many .mobi or .xyz domains used by companies getting VC funding
Hundreds of companies using .AI have received hundreds of billions in funding just over the last 3 years
Also don’t believe users search google: “Hotels mobi” or “crypto xyz”, but they do search keyword + Ai, as health Ai, or assistant + Ai, Music + Ai
Those using ChatGPT 4 may notice major advances over really pedestrian CHATGPT3….
I have access to more updated version of ChatGpt4.5 and all I can say is it can do case law and create legal briefs, motions, and response to USPTO office actions almost on the level of first rate attorneys ..lawyers will not be replaced …but their assistants?
Keep in mind at least 80% of my portfolio is .com, but yes, I do own great .ai domains so I guess I’m in the camp of Andy Booth, as I also work in .AI
Never thought you would drink the .Ai kool-aid but good luck!
Very fair assessment E.S.
(.ai) has all the makings of a classic bubble.
But eventually all roads lead to .com upgrades next year.
“all roads lead to .com upgrades next year”
Let me just take 3 of the over 100 companies with .AI that have received over 150 million usd in funding
Character.ai
Shield.ai
Builder.ai
They have ample funding and revenues to upgrade to .com now or in 2025. I’ll be happy to take any bet that all 3, and most likely none, will not upgrade in 2025.
And i also own over 100 _____ai.com domains so at least my position isn’t completely biased over those who own no .ai domains
Character.com is being used by corporation.
Shield.com is being used by a fraud detection company.
Builder.com is owned by a tech venture company.
None of the upgrades you mentioned are for sale.
Of course those companies on (.ai) will be unlikely to upgrade. I’m referring to (.ai) startups that succeed and (.com) is for sale. Having funds and a willing seller are not the same thing.
See threads.com v. threads.net disaster.
I don’t care how many (.ai) you own, what isn’t sold by 2025 most likely will sell for more than reg fee.
Try again.
AI is actually artificial Idiots…. whatever it is, it will rise the value of dot com domains
remember back to the domain basics— dot com is KING
Real end user perspective, not just domainer:
.mobi is dumb, no value.
.ai is good, useful, like .tv on steroids as DC expressed above.
.ai > all the others mentioned here. Even .co, though as a “poor man’s .com” .co still is pretty good for some things and a solid honorable mention for some uses.
PS:
.ai and .tv are in different categories, so .tv is actually really great in its own way and its particular ballpark.
PPS:
Case in point – I’m actually using a .ai as an end user now, though for now not on its own website. But I may put a site on it by next year. I would also be willing to sell this one, but that was never my original intention when regging it. I only have one .ai now.
and as far as “,ai being .tv on steroids”, how many companies using .TV besides twitch.tv reached billion dollar valuation?
how many companies using .ai?
hundreds
how many companies using.mobi?
My guess – zero
how many companies using .io?
dozens
how many companies using .com?
thousands
the only people getting 5 million dollar signing bonuses these days to work for companies or orgs besides super athletes or A-List celebs:
Experts in Ai
Microsoft just signed one AI expert for over 100 million usd to come aboard
Ai is not a trend
It’s in nascent stages, but it is taking exponential leaps
Apple and Microsoft have been scooping up Ai startups, mainly as acquihires, for the last few years
i’m hoping we will see lots of .AI companies use Ai___.com or ____ai.com, as I’m well-positioned, or with GPT or Genai, but for now the one word .ai domains are getting all the thunder in the naming of Ai companies
and of course, there will be many Ai companies sporting one word .com wonders — hundreds
Your statement is strong.
Every time I see a huge .ai domain name, which seems to be fairly common these days, it only reminds me of how I completely missed the boat on ai domains. I was just writing that it is almost as bad as when I shrugged off Bitcoin and Ethereum a decade ago. SMH
Bitcoin is the biggest such regret of my life. I new about it very early, almost from the beginning. I could have bought billions worth for next to nothing, have cashed out billions, and still be holding billions worth now.
And if I had, I would still talk fervently about how utterly worthless a house of cards it is, and how government and their puppet masters, partners and friends can and will effectively terminate its imaginary “value” the moment they are done with it and ready.
The second such regret is domain names during the 90’s, as I’m sure many of us can relate.
Yes, I have many similar regrets —but just have to turn the page
I have zero excuses for not getting one word .com wonders in 2001
I have zero excuses for not getting BTC and ETH in 2014
I did get 80 .AI domains in 2015-2016 and I should have gotten 200 — no excuse — and I let about 45 of those 80 sell for way too little, 5 which were acquired by AI companies with massive funding ,,,
But we just have to turn the page and forge on
BTW — Estibot is giving really high valuations to one word .ai domains these days which I find comical in that its low valuations for good .com domains has been perplexing ..its algorithm for appraisal must give added weight to recent one word .ai sales, hence the surprising high .ai domain appraisals
In summary, I still think it’s possible to wrangle a good .com domain and resale for 10x in time and that’s why 95% of my domain budget is .com.
There’s still an insane amount of amazing “.ai” Domain names up for grabs. You just need to make sure you’re getting the right ones that will most likely have a high use-case and demand in the future. I truly believe “.ai” Domains are going to replace .com.
Remember – nothing is too big to collapse. I’m not saying .com will collapse, it’ll always be popular. But, “.ai” will take over. The whole world is headed toward AI, at an extremely fast pace. It hasn’t even entirely started yet, it’s only just warming up. Saying it’s too late to get in on “.ai” Domains – is like saying it was too late to get into Bitcoin in 2015.
We’ll see.
“I truly believe “.ai” Domains are going to replace .com.”
Do you think legacy companies – like Google, Coke, Nike, 3M, Dupont, AIG, Goldman Sachs, Citi, Apple, and others are going to switch from .com to .AI for their websites?
This isn’t about already established brands rebranding to “.ai” as their names and brands far succeed their Domain name. These brands and IP’s are never referred to as “Google.com” or “Apple.com” in normal everyday conversations.
It’s about future brands that may very well turn into Legacy Brands, rebranding to “.ai”