JUNE 20178IN MY OPINIONVALUE WITH YOUR DOMAIN NAMEBy Sandeep Ramchandani, Vice President & Business Head, Directi GroupDirecti invests in multiple category leading global brands across business areas as diverse as web presence (domains, hosting, cloud-infrastructure), communication & collaboration (voice and messaging), payments (benefits and compensation) and online advertisingWhat has your startup's web address got to do with your startup's branding, marketing and customer acquisition? A lot, actually.It has happened with you, as it has happened with most of us, that there is that perfect brand name in your mind for your startup but the web address is already taken by someone else. What do you do in that scenario? You compromise. You let go of that name and settle for something less marketable, less brandable; the only consolation being that it's on .COM. On the other end is owning a domain name that not only is an extension of your startup's brand identity but also a name you are convinced will give you an edge over your peers. Thanks to the 1200 new domain extensions available today, startups can pick and choose the one that suits them best. From .solutions, .online to .business, .space to even .cool or .tech! The freedom to pick from so many new extensions has empowered the new-age startups to obtain the name they want instead of settling for something that is not their first choice. Realizing this, startups are increasingly going for new domain extensions that are more descriptive and innovative to enhance their brand identity and to get gain a marketing edge over their peers. Take for instance domain extension .tech. For startups in the tech space, this is extremely relevant. Instead of naming the websitewww.brandnametech.com, it can instead bewww.brandname.tech ­ shorter, more specific, brandable and far more memorable. There are industry specific domain names too like .fashion, .shoes, .host, .dental, and .press. So startups in news aggregation or publishing can now get a .press domain ­ a logical choice when it comes to conveying more with less.The trend is already being leveraged greatly by bigger brands too. Recently an American media conglomerate, Meredith Corporation, made news when it announced that it has moved its online magazine store towww.magazine.store. Meredith acquired this premium domain name because it understood the value of owning a web address that is memorable, brandable and, what the insiders call, a category killer. Popular website, Urban Dictionary, launched the Urban Dictionary store on www.urbandictionary.store, a name that clearly conveys what the website is all about. Freedom of the Press Foundation, which has Edward Snowden on its Board of Directors,
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