In the past few weeks, I have released a two-part series looking at the domain names used by unicorn companies. This data was compiled using Crunchbase’s Unicorn Board, and part 1 and part 2 are both available in their raw forms.
Here, I’m going to take a look at the data and share some basic facts about the domain names used by unicorn companies. Note that this data is compiled using domain names listed in each company’s Crunchbase profile. Many may have upgraded their domains, but that isn’t reflected on Crunchbase.
TLDs
It should come as no surprise to learn that .com is the overwhelming favorite among unicorn companies.
As you can see from the chart, 79.4% of unicorn companies use a .com domain. That’s equivalent to 1043 companies out of our data set of 1,313.
After .com, the most popular extension is .io, used by 4.0% of companies, with .ai and .cn coming in joint third with 2.6% usage each. In total, there are 65 different domain extensions used by these companies.
Compare this with Y Combinator’s Winter 2021 set of startups, which recorded 49.8% .com usage and 11.95% .io usage. It’s plain to see that unicorn companies value .com domains.
Domain Length
Do unicorn companies tend to use shorter domains? According to this, in general, no.
In total, the average length of a domain name used by unicorn companies is 8 characters, with the median average also 8. In comparison, the average length for a domain from Y Combinator’s Winter 2021 set of startups was 6.45 characters.
There are 4 companies using two-character .com domains, LY.com, MX.com, G2.com, and LE.com.
There are 16 companies using three-letter .com domains.
There are 45 companies using four-letter .com domains.
The longest domain used by a unicorn company is constellationautomotive.com, weighing in at 23 characters. It’s owned and operated by Constellation Automotive.
Notable Domains
There are, of course, dozens of standout domains among unicorn companies.
Some of my favorites include:
- Gem.com
- Aura.com
- Pipe.com
- Stash.com
- Stripe.com
Great info. Clearly startups try to secure dot-Com at Series A, esp. by Series B.
20% of Unicorns that DONT own EMD aren’t barred by price, but by usage.
For example, Constellation Automotive would surely love to own Constellation*com, but another large corporation has a LIVE site offering their goods and services.
Dot-Com continues to show its strength among end-users.