Earlier this week, I bought my first .AI domain names. I have been looking at aftermarket options, but my level of risk tolerance for these domain names is below what it would take to purchase anything worthwhile right now. As a result, my first .AI domain names were hand registrations.
The alternatives to hand registering domain names are aftermarket acquisitions or expiry auctions operated by the .AI registry.
When it comes to domain industry trends, I am not a first mover. I probably own some trend-ish domain names, but my bread and butter remains good one or two word .coms.
For the past year or so, I have been keeping an eye on startups using .AI domain names and publicly reported .AI domain name sales. After seeing some friends and colleagues appear to have success with their own .AI domain names, I decided to buy my first .AI domain names. I succumbed to FOMO.
For a variety of reasons, I am not going to share the names I bought, but I will share some insight behind my purchase.
Andrew Rosener and Andy Booth are two domain investors whose opinions I respect. I have known Andy and Andrew for many years, and I know both have had considerable success investing in domain names.
When it comes to .AI domain name investments, it looks like their paths are diverging. Andy was recently on the Domain Sherpa show, and .AI was a topic of discussion.
In addition to this, a recent Twitter exchange between Andrew and Andy show their differing thoughts on .AI domain name investing:
I missed the boat on .AI domain names. With very few exceptions – and perhaps to my detriment – I don’t generally like to try and acquire domain names in alternative extensions that are popular. For instance, I am pretty sure I never owned a .ME, .LY, or .IO domain name despite their trendiness at various points in time. I also haven’t owned a .AI domain name either. Maybe that will change this year.
According to NameBio, there were $5.5 million in publicly reported .AI domain name sales in 2023. This amount will likely increase as sales reports from the final couple of weeks of 2023 will be reported and recorded. In 2022, the sales volume was just under $900k. In 2021, the volume was $1.2m.
In the past couple of days, there have been numerous articles about Anguilla’s .AI ccTLD. I wrote about the InterNetX article, but several mainstream publications have subsequently written about the windfall .AI domain names have produced for the Caribbean nation of Anguilla.
Fortune and Ars Technica each published articles discussing the growth of .AI domain names. Importantly, the revenue from .AI domain name registrations and renewals has become a key economic driver for the nation. With the growth of ChatGPT and AI startup funding in general, many startups have turned to .AI domain names. Companies have registered .AI domain names, and I am sure domain investors have also registered .AI domain names with the hopes of reselling them.
.AI is the country code extension (ccTLD) for the Caribbean country of Anguilla. Domain names with the .AI extension were originally created to give people in Anguilla their own home online. In the last couple of years, .AI domain names have become popular outside of Anguilla because AI is the abbreviation for Artificial Intelligence. Billions of dollars in funding has been given to AI-related startups, and I have noticed many startups in the field of AI are using .AI domain names.
As a result of the broadened usage of .AI domain names, the value of .AI domain names has taken off. More .AI domain names are selling on the aftermarket, and auction prices for .AI domain names have climbed. YTD, NameBio has recorded more than $3.3m worth of publicly reported .AI domain name sales.
