There was a lot of activity among startups in 2015 with 3,146 recorded domain name purchases from VC-backed startups. Domain investors can pour over this data to look for trends, patterns, and important information that provides clear hints to which domain names are most likely to be winners and which are more likely to be losers.
Analyzing the data here can give investors the insights needed to focus on those domains that are most likely to pay off.
Here’s what we will cover in this analysis:
- Raw data of funded startups
- Major insights from analysis
- Takeaways for domain investors
Let’s get into it!
Raw Data of 2015 Funded Startups
3 Major Insights From Domains Used By VC Startups
Since VC startups understand the importance of branding and marketing, paying attention to the domains they buy is crucial for investors. These are the buyers who have the money to go after the right brandable domain name.
So how did we gather and use this information?
Our approach was as follows. We obtained the data of funded startups from Crunchbase and cross-correlated that to their domain names. We analyzed the raw data using Microsoft Excel and created data-driven charts to pull insights.
Let’s take a look at the information that 2015’s data can give us.
1. Most Common TLDs Used By Startups
The .com TLD is the most popular by a long shot accounting for 2355 out of the 3,146 domains purchased, or just short of 75%. The most popular alternatives are .io and .co, which combine for 247 domains or around 8%.
There was a lot of hype when .tv came out, but it’s only at 20, which is even less than .org and .net, or even .me. It will have to show strong growth in the future to live up to the initial hype.
2. Number of Words in a Startup Domain Name
One-word domains are the most popular at 1,612 of the 3,146 total domains bought, which is 51% of the total domains. Two-word domains came in second with 1,272 or 40% of the domain names purchased.
This means 91% of the domains bought by startups were only one or two words in length.
The fall-off was drastic after that. Three-word domains only accounted for 240 of the domain names that startups bought and the remaining 22 domain names were 4 words in length.
3. How Many Characters In Startup Domains?
The sweet spot for characters in a domain is 6-10 characters in length. There were more eight-character domains than any other. Despite 6-10 being the sweet spot, there were still plenty of domains that were 5-characters in length or 11-characters in length that also sold.
There is a distinctive drop in demand for domains by startups the longer the actual name gets. This seems to indicate that the new idea of “short and sweet” might be taking the place of the older idea of “long and detailed.”
Final Takeaways for Domain Investors
This study of 2015 domain name purchases by startups gives some specific data that provides a foundation for better domain purchases.
- One-word domains are the most popular with two-word domains following close behind
- The .com TLD is clearly the best option with .co and .io splitting a distant second place
- 6 to 10 characters is the sweep spot for a domain name
Domain names that have these traits are going to be far more likely to provide a big pay-off for investors when shopping them to new VC-backed startups.
