Earlier this week, I learned that a company called X-Formation has launched a new business on Connect.xyz. The business is simply called Connect, and it is a cloud-based task automation application that works with a variety of apps, including Twitter, Salesforce, Slack, and Gmail (among others). I was told that “Connect.xyz serves as a clever marketing tool for this powerful software that excels in integrating with most (X, Y, and Z) applications to extract data.”
X-Formation is a software development company that is used in the field of software licensing. Some of the X-Formation clients listed on the company About Us page include Honda, Siemens, HP, and NASA.
When asked why the company chose Connect.xyz for this website, Henrik Goldman, Founder of X-Formation shared the following:
“When we discovered the .xyz domain, we knew it would be a perfect fit to describe our business application – Connect.xyz.
Connect helps business users to integrate a lot of their applications and as a result save time for other activities. What’s great is that the .xyz domain fits this idea perfectly. The domain’s catchy nature helps our users to immediately identify the app’s purpose (to connect X, Y, and Z), which on its most basic level is simply time-saving.”
One thing I found interesting is that the company is calling itself Connect without mentioning the .xyz in the branding. I am sure this is intentional, but it will be interesting to see if they opt to add the .xyz to its branding to prevent confusion. Connect.com is another, unrelated company that appears to be in a private beta right now.
I asked Shayan Rostam (from the .XYZ Registry) if he could tell me the cost to purchase Connect.xyz. He couldn’t tell me the exact price, but I saw the recommended retail list price was $13,000, according to the .xyz variably priced premiums CSV file. These premium-priced domain names also have premium annual renewal fees, although I am not sure that figure either. The company registered Connect.xyz in early September of this year.
The only company that should call itself “Connect” without confusion is Connect.com…The company in your subject, for all purposes, should be called “Connect.xyz”…An example of the logic can be seen with “Media.net” as it is not called “Media”. A good rule for startups and companies is if you don’t have the .com you have to use the entire URL every time and every where…
Agree with you 100%. I also saw you post somewhere on a mainstream site about the “transition” recently and it was a great post by you.
In my opinion, if they are HONEST about what they have said about why they chose .XYZ (as compared to, say, “well we simply couldn’t afford the .com or it was not for sale), then featuring “.XYZ” in their branding is what they do. As it is, based on what they said it only makes sense, and frankly is even an appealing idea in my opinion (as someone who otherwise regards .xyz as a hideous joke no less). So that they are not doing that is particularly noteable.
what they would* do
Thanks John!
Very insightful statement. Thank you. It’s now filed away in my file for later reference.
Thank you Kassey!
This is also the rule I practice as a user of domains. You frankly can’t even afford to try to get away with doing it the other way. Not including the TLD when you don’t have the .com is likely to hurt you quite a bit.
Thank you guys for your comments. We do indeed plan on shipping a new design. So shortly this will take effect.
Dude, you are ultimately going to wish that you had paid up for Connect.com instead. Maybe not next year, but the year after that and the year after that and the year after that. You are going to need Connect.com at some point. For now, you should at least buy the ConnectXYZ.com domain name from its current owner — that’s likely what many consumers, media, vendors, and investors will be typing into their browsers to try to find your company outside of Google SERPs.
GTLD nightmare, these guys probably thought one time fee of $12,000 to buy it, but it comes with an annual renewal of $12K, rude awakening on renewal
If it does that’s a pretty sick renewal fee. Not just a joke, but a sick joke.