Market Evaluation

Overview

Almost everyone needs a domain name: individuals, corporations, nonprofits, mom-and-pop stores, VC-backed startups, multinationals, institutions, etc. As the Internet becomes pervasive, a company without a website is like a company without a phone number. This trend is already apparent in America, where an email address and a website have become mandatory on a business card. As the Internet grows in importance internationally, people in companies around the world will need domain names for their businesses. Heckler Associates has six major criteria for finding the perfect moniker.

Uniqueness. The ideal name is an "empty vessel" waiting for definition.
Credibility. The name must sound somewhat familiar, as if it has existed for eons.
Legibility. What does it look like in print?
Clarity. How well is the name heard and repeated?
Compatibility. It must tie in well with the nomenclature of the company and the industry.
Durability. Trendy sounds and syllables ("net," for instance) should be avoided.

Domain names are now being registered at an incredibly rapid pace. Network Solutions announced on June 15th that their domain name registration base had exceeded the 14 million mark. This reflects an increase in 4 million net new domain names in only two months since their announcement that they had broken the 10 million barrier on May 15th. The cumulative total of net registrations grew 164 percent in one year, from 5.3 million at June 30, 1999.