Fewer companies are adding a top level domain to their brand name.
In 2018 I analyzed the Inc. 5000 list for domains-as-companies. By this, I mean the company’s brand name is a domain name, such as Signs.com.
That year I found 66 companies. 57 had .com (e.g. calm.com, scientist.com) and 9 were non-.com, including 3 .io domains and 2 .co domains.
What a difference four years make.
I reviewed the 2022 Inc. 5000 list and found only 29 companies that used a domain name as brands. Nine of them were .io, and only 15 were .com.
Let me start with a caveat that this was from eyeballing the list. Inc. makes it maddeningly difficult to analyze its data, so I’m sure I missed some.
But a couple of things are clear:
- Fewer companies on the list use the top level domain in their brand. I think we’ve seen this as a trend lately. Companies use a great domain but don’t brand with it. For example, Calm now goes by merely Calm, not Calm.com.
- .Io jumped in usage. I think we all knew that, but it manifested itself on this list. Keep in mind that companies on the list are at least three years old, so this doesn’t mean the .io trend is continuing.
I should note that some companies have brands that don’t represent how they’re named on the list. Consider Candles & Supplies .com. Not only is that not a valid URL, but it doesn’t appear the company uses the .com in branding.
There’s a benefit to using a domain in your brand name. It can result in more links to your website.
Here’s what I discovered. Let me know if you find any I missed.
Rank – Name
15 TeamBuilding.com
109 Hoodsly.com
199 Polygon.io
533 Blue.cloud
542 Apprentice.io
860 ID.me
895 Programmers.io
1187 FreeRateUpdate.com
1210 Stream.io
1213 Ivy.ai
1269 BloomsyBox.com
1369 NameHero.com
1443 BusinessRocket.com
1563 Passion.io
1596 Osmosis.org
2364 Bucket.io
2431 Kitces.com
2511 Customer.io
2652 Paw.com
2660 TankAndBarrel.com
2728 Incfile.com
3360 Rankings.io
3575 Candles & Supplies .com
4020 540.co
4053 GiftBasketsOverseas.com
4123 Rev.io
4414 Rev.com
4480 GourmetGiftBaskets.com
4606 iCheckGateway.com
John Berryhill says
“Rev.com” appears to use “Rev” at their website, which may be why “Rev.io” emphasizes the .io to differentiate from Rev.com.
Charles says
Interesting way of looking at the data Andrew, thank you.
As I looked at the profiles I am reminded how hard it is for these folks to have a consistent “address”. For example:
No.15 teambuilding.com
Website: http://teambuilding.com
linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com//company/teambuilding/
twitter: https://www.twitter.com/teambuildingcom
facebook: https://www.facebook.com//teambuildingdotcom
No.18 Hardbody Coaching
website: http://teamhardbodycoaching.com
twitter: https://www.twitter.com/TheHardBodyTeam (backwards)
No.30 MUD\WTR
http://mudwtr.com
website: https://www.linkedin.com/company/MUD\WTR
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/drinkmudwtr
Took me until 147 to find this:
No.147 CigarClub
Website: http://cigarclub.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cigarclubdotcom <– DOT COM
Some added hyphens in social media to try to otherwise preserve their string. If you can't get a consistent string across how much does the TLD matter as developing the customer relationship would seem to need to be done separate from the exact address. Assuming Social Media actual matters ….
Brandable domains and long tails seemed to be able to preserve the address across access points.
This list is high growth companies, but some seem very small.