How New TLDs Are Making .COM Domains Even More Expensive
The Domain Boom That Made .COM Stronger
There’s a common belief floating around the startup world that with the explosion of new domain extensions (.ai, .club, .xyz, .whatever), .com doesn't matter as much anymore. But one has to question whether that sentiment is actually true. In our opinion, the flood of new TLDs has only made .com domains more valuable. Not because it’s harder to start on a .com, but because it’s become the clear destination once a company gets traction while using a “starter” TLD.
The Upgrade Effect
The proliferation of new extensions has lowered the barrier to entry for companies to get off the ground. You can spin up Tuscany.ai or Tuscany.club or Tuscany.horse in minutes. You can launch something quickly, stay on brand, and avoid spending big money on the .com upfront. But here’s where things get interesting: once these businesses find traction, they all start eyeing the same destination: Tuscany.com. The original. The default in customers’ minds.
Scarcity Meets Competition
What used to be a slow trickle of inbound interest in a premium domain has turned into a crowd. Demand isn’t just coming from one ambitious founder. It’s coming from five or more companies who might be building around the same brand name and using different TLDs, all gunning for the .com as their endgame. That turns the domain into a scarce asset. Prices rise. Bidding wars break out. Owning the .com becomes more than just a nice-to-have. It’s a moat. It’s the difference between being the brand people type in automatically and being the one that gets mistaken for a knockoff.
The False Sense of Abundance
There’s a false sense of abundance with new TLDs. They make it feel like there’s infinite availability. But they’re really just adding more wrappers around the same core ideas. The real scarcity, (the short, memorable, authoritative .com tied to a powerful name), hasn’t changed. If anything, it’s been pushed to a premium by all the noise around it.
The Bottom Line
So no, new extensions didn’t devalue .com. They made it the endgame. And founders who wait too long to secure the dot-com version of their brand may find themselves priced out. Or worse, watching a competitor lock it in first.
To work with Snagged on acquiring your brand’s .com before someone else does, get in touch.
