For the past number of years, the .IO extension has been favored by technology startups and as a result, domain investors as well. Recently however, there’s a “new” extension that has caught the startup community’s eye: .AI. Calling it a trend may be understating it: over the past 365 days, DomainAgents has seen an increase of over 1000% in the number of inquiries we’ve received for .AI domains!
Some make the mistake of thinking that .AI is an abbreviation for artificial intelligence, but the suffix is actually the ccTLD (country code top level domain) for the small Caribbean island, Anguilla. It is operated by Offshore Information Services, and while its original intended use was for sites based in or targeting Anguilla, more and more registrants are adopting the domain extension for its connection to artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation.
The .AI extension has been around since 1995; however, they were difficult to register. As more artificial intelligence companies pop up and more registrars have added support for the domain extension, it’s only recently that interest in the ccTLD picked up steam. Unsurprisingly, domain investors have been snapping up .AI domain names with keywords that may be of potential interest to companies in this growing industry.
Similarly, the .IO ccTLD was originally intended for registrants from the Indian Ocean. The technology sector has since repurposed the domain extension for their own use as the combination of letters (IO) can alternatively refer to the electronics and programming acronym for input/output. In both instances, using a .AI or .IO extension can help your brand stand out and show your audience that you are technology focused right out of the gate.
While you can generally register a .COM domain for around $10 per year, .IO and .AI domains are more expensive per year. On NameCheap.com, registering a .IO domain starts as low as $32.48/year. Meanwhile, a .AI domain will run you up to $68.88/year (minimum 2 years).
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are relatively young fields, so there is still a lot of untapped potential and thus, possibility for significant growth. Primer, Ever AI, Zoom.ai and Precision Health AI are just a few notable .AI suffix start-ups which have received some buzz. Crunchbase.com describes Primer as a company that uses machine learning to help other businesses make sense of massive amounts of documents and text data. Ever AI offers an advanced facial recognition platform, and Precision Health is a platform that applies AI to oncology. Zoom.ai is a personal assistant for your workday. These early stage ventures are just the tip of the iceberg in the potential applications for artificial intelligence.
The aftermarket for .AI domains is also young and most .AI domains that have been sold have sold for a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, with a few published sales in the five and six-figure range.
Unlike the .COM name space, there are still many quality .AI domain names available for those who want to use or invest in the extension. With new artificial intelligence and machine learning companies springing up in Silicon Valley, Canada, and worldwide, this is one trend that warrants your closer investigation.
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