--- title: YC startups are abandoning .com | daily.dev description: An interactive data study analyzes 6,135 Y Combinator portfolio companies to track how domain endings (TLDs) and domain lengths have shifted across twenty... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/yc-startups-are-abandoning-com-rzpqmvgrn twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: YC startups are abandoning .com | daily.dev og:description: An interactive data study analyzes 6,135 Y Combinator portfolio companies to track how domain endings (TLDs) and domain lengths have shifted across twenty... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/yc-startups-are-abandoning-com-rzpqmvgrn og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/rzPQMvgrn.png og:image:alt: YC startups are abandoning .com og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # YC startups are abandoning .com **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary An interactive data study analyzes 6,135 Y Combinator portfolio companies to track how domain endings (TLDs) and domain lengths have shifted across twenty years of YC batches. The .com share has fallen below half, while alternative TLDs like .ai, .io, .co, and niche options such as .sh, .so, and .inc have grown. The piece also breaks down median domain length trends, shortest and longest domains, and the earliest YC companies to adopt .ai domains. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What percentage of Y Combinator startups use a .com domain now compared to earlier years Less than half of Y Combinator portfolio companies currently use a .com domain, at 47%, down from a near-universal share in YC's early years. Alternative endings like .ai and .io have grown to fill the gap, with .ai domains becoming common enough to warrant tracking the first ten companies that adopted one, starting in the 2014–2016 batch range. _Founders weighing domain strategy can follow branding and startup trend coverage on daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 2 discussions and 57 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-08-12). **TL;DR:** Most commenters push back on the headline framing, arguing that startups aren't abandoning .com so much as being priced out or unable to find available names, with .com still widely seen as the eventual goal once a company can afford it. **Sentiment:** 10% positive · 55% mixed · 35% skeptical **The case for** - Alternative TLDs like .ai, .io, and .dev have gained real traction and legitimacy as naming fashions shift. - Once startups raise enough funding, many still go acquire a premium .com domain, showing its enduring value. **The pushback** - Domain squatters keep prices artificially high on desirable .com names, which is seen as a scandal. - Non-.com domains like .io or .dev can carry technical or trust downsides (e.g. forced HTTPS, risk of TLD deprecation, being seen as 'dodgy'). - Some feel any domain other than .com undermines credibility for a commercial site. **By community** - hackernews (mixed): Commenters largely dispute the 'abandoning' framing, attributing the TLD shift to domain scarcity and pricing rather than genuine preference, while debating whether .com still reigns supreme. **Hottest debate:** Whether .com remains unambiguously dominant and credible, or whether alternative TLDs like .ai and .io have genuinely earned lasting legitimacy. **Open questions** - Which alternative TLDs are actually reliable long-term versus at risk of being deprecated or having prices hiked by their registries. - Why domain squatters are able to hold names for decades at minimal cost while driving up resale prices. **Highlights** > > YC startups are abandoning .com They are not "abandoning" .com domains. They are just really hard to find available or cheap enough to buy, so they launch with something else instead! .com will always be king > — [vlucas on hackernews · 3 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49273006) > it's not that they can't afford to buy one. it's that they're not available. and now a lot of other tlds have gained traction so it's now reasonable to consider others. > — [jeffyaw on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49273473) > The squatters really jack up the prices. Yet somehow they pay pennies to squat on domains for decades. It's really a scandal. > — [xhkkffbf on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49273579) > Nope: it surprised me too, but we did a small survey and unless you’re a nerd, anything not ending in either com or your own nation’s TLD structure is considered dodgy and/or hard to type (.co being a notorious case — people type .com instead). This is mitigated slightly by the fact that people don’t use URIs much any more and even if they do they usually type something into a search bar or chat bot which DWIMs what they typed anyway. > — [gumby on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49273747) > .com is evergreen but it's more and more difficult to get good .com names I wouldn't call this 'abandoning .com' though it's basically still .com dominated with a good chunk .ai and I guess the ones with good .com are keeping the .com > — [tosh on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49273484) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49271413) · 18 points · 57 comments - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49264152) · 4 points · 0 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [From .com to .anything: introducing Top-Level Domain \(TLD\) insights on Cloudflare Radar](https://daily.dev/posts/from-com-to-anything-introducing-top-level-domain-tld-insights-on-cloudflare-radar-fuqtztc8k) · Cloudflare · 42 upvotes · 0 comments - [21,864 Yugoslavian .yu Domains – Jacob Filipp](https://daily.dev/posts/21-864-yugoslavian-yu-domains-jacob-filipp-srcplunhr) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [What happens to TLDs when their country stops existing? \(2022\)](https://daily.dev/posts/what-happens-to-tlds-when-their-country-stops-existing-2022--w65wq9ipf) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#startup](https://daily.dev/tags/startup), [#data-visualization](https://daily.dev/tags/data-visualization), [#y-combinator](https://daily.dev/tags/y-combinator) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/yc-startups-are-abandoning-com-rzpqmvgrn) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"YC startups are abandoning .com","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/yc-startups-are-abandoning-com-rzpqmvgrn","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/yc-startups-are-abandoning-com-rzpqmvgrn"},"datePublished":"2026-08-12T14:49:19.689Z","dateModified":"2026-08-12T15:50:08.132Z","description":"An interactive data study analyzes 6,135 Y Combinator portfolio companies to track how domain endings (TLDs) and domain lengths have shifted across twenty...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b77edf1bf8ac1112fa9289932d82bcca?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b77edf1bf8ac1112fa9289932d82bcca?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/yc-startups-are-abandoning-com-rzpqmvgrn","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"startup,data-visualization,y-combinator","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"YC startups are abandoning .com"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/yc-startups-are-abandoning-com-rzpqmvgrn#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What percentage of Y Combinator startups use a .com domain now compared to earlier years","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Less than half of Y Combinator portfolio companies currently use a .com domain, at 47%, down from a near-universal share in YC's early years. 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