Downplayed in Inc. 5000 list — Domain names

Fewer firms are adding a top level domain to their brand name.

In 2018 I analyzed the Inc. 5000 list for domains-as-firms. By this, I mean the firm’s brand name is a domain name, such as Signs.com.

That year I found 66 firms. 57 had .com (e.g. calm.com, scientist.com) and 9 were non-.com, counting 3 .io domains and 2 .co domains.

What a difference four years make.

I reviewed the 2022 Inc. 5000 list and found only 29 firms 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:

1. Fewer firms on the list use the top level domain in their brand. I think we’ve seen this as a trend lately. Firms use a great domain but don’t brand with it. For example, Calm now goes by merely Calm, not Calm.com.
2. .Io jumped in usage. I think we all knew that, but it manifested itself on this list. Keep in mind that firms on the list are at least three years old, so this doesn’t mean the .io trend is continuing.

I ought to note that some firms 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 firm 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 Client.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