So now you’re staring at the alphabet soup of modern domain extensions: (5.Viewing)

You name your startup.

It’s clean. It’s punchy. You’re in love.

But the .com? Taken.

And the price tag is more than your entire seed round.

So now you’re staring at the alphabet soup of modern domain extensions:

.io, .ai, .co, .org, .xyz…

Here’s the thing: these aren’t just backups.

They’re signals.

.com means you’ve arrived.
It’s the suit and tie. The one you wear to close the deal.
It’s
@Zoom
spending $2M to upgrade from One platform to connect | Zoom, because clarity matters.

.org is the values play.
@signalapp
.
@ProtonMail
. Tech companies, sure…but built on trust, privacy, mission.
You don’t fake it on .org. You lead with it.

.co is the shortcut.
@AngelList
.
@Bitly
.
@500STARTUPS

It’s hustle in domain form.
Affordable, brandable, and close enough to .com to feel legit.
But don’t expect everyone to remember it.

.ai is the hype magnet.
Anguilla struck gold with it, and every AI startup followed.
character.ai | AI Chat, Reimagined–Your Words. Your World.. http://perplexity.ai. http://synthesia.ai.
It tells investors, users, and press exactly what you’re building.
But if your product doesn’t actually use AI? It’s a costume, not a signal.

.io is the dev wink.
It’s the laptop sticker. The open beta.
A nod to engineering cred, but with political baggage under the hood.

.xyz is the blank canvas.
@AlphabetInc
made it cool. Web3 made it weird.
It’s cheap, wide open, and beloved by anyone building outside the lines.
Sometimes that freedom attracts spam, but it also breeds originality.

If your brand is bold, .xyz gives you space to play.

The point?

Every domain extension tells a story.

The one you choose becomes part of yours.

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