{"id":1022,"date":"2022-07-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-12T21:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mediaoptions.com\/blog\/domain-upgrade-with-james-iles-may-2022\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T22:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T22:02:07","slug":"blog-domain-upgrade-with-james-iles-may-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediaoptions.com\/blog\/domain-upgrade-with-james-iles-may-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Domain Upgrade with James Iles: May 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Every month, hundreds of companies manage to secure a domain name upgrade. Each time this happens, the pool of available premium domain names reduces.<\/p>\n

Here, I’m highlighting 7 premium domain name upgrades that were revealed or discovered in May 2022.<\/p>\n

Bux.com<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you can’t get your exact-match .com, a path that many startups use is to add a prefix. Words such as “get”, “try”, or “go” are popular prefixes that offer a cheap alternative to an ultra-premium .com.<\/p>\n

Investment company Bux<\/a> started life with a prefixed domain, operating on GetBux.com, since the company was formed in 2014.<\/p>\n

Bux, which has raised $115.8 million in disclosed funding, made the decision to secure Bux.com. The acquisition looks to have happened in October 2021, but it was discovered in May 2022 by researcher Jaimie Zoch.<\/p>\n

The Bux.com upgrade came months after Bux announced its $67 million Series C funding round.<\/p>\n

Ballet.com<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cryptocurrency companies interested in long-term success are making moves to acquire ultra-premium .com domains.<\/p>\n

These assets elicit trust and set these companies apart from others. The likes of Exodus.com, Crypto.com, Swan.com, Gemini.com, and Ledger.com are all owned by ambitious companies with long-term goals in the cryptocurrency industry.<\/p>\n

Another company has joined those ranks. Ballet is a cryptocurrency wallet provider<\/a> that was founded in 2019 by Bobby Lee, who previously co-founded BTCC, a major Chinese cryptocurrency exchange.<\/p>\n

Lee’s new project, Ballet, hasn’t disclosed any funding, but nonetheless, the company reportedly paid a seven-figure sum to secure the Ballet.com domain, moving from BalletCrypto.com.<\/p>\n

Reach.com<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is technically a rebrand, but the domain deserves to be mentioned regardless. A lending company<\/a> called Liberty Lending underwent a significant switch in May, moving from its dated Liberty Lending brand to Reach Financial.<\/p>\n

The company also moved from LibertyLending.com to Reach.com. There was very little fanfare about the rebrand but acquiring Reach.com deserves some recognition.<\/p>\n

Reach.com is one of the top one-word .com domains in existence and harnessing the power of this domain will only benefit Reach Financial as it grows.<\/p>\n

Hyena.com<\/strong><\/p>\n

Animal names are among the most versatile brand names. Financial institutions, car manufacturers, and insurance companies are among the brands that have adopted animal names.<\/p>\n

A South African energy company<\/a> arrived at an animal brand name thanks to an amalgamation of the words Hydrogen, Energy, and Application, forming the brand name Hyena.<\/p>\n

Hyena operated on HyenaEnergy.com since it launched but managed to secure Hyena.com for an undisclosed fee in May 2022.<\/p>\n

Gigs.com<\/strong><\/p>\n

Telecoms as a service provider<\/a>, Gigs is a young company that was featured in the Winter 2021 batch of Y Combinator startups. As a result, Gigs secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding.<\/p>\n

Describing itself as Stripe for SIM cards, Gigs is heavily reliant on its website, dashboard, and API to effectively provide its product.<\/p>\n

With its online presence supremely important to the brand, Gigs recognized the need for a domain name upgrade. The company, which launched using Gigs.tel, secured the Gigs.com domain in May 2022.<\/p>\n

As of publishing, the domain hasn’t been deployed by the company, but it’s only a matter of time before Gigs.tel becomes Gigs.com.<\/p>\n

M1.com<\/strong><\/p>\n

Online-centric finance companies<\/a> are among the businesses that can benefit most from owning a premium domain, adding an extra layer of trust and legitimacy.<\/p>\n

M1 Finance, which dubs itself “the super finance app,”<\/em> helps make investing more accessible to a wider market.<\/p>\n

Up until recently, M1 Finance operated on its exact-match domain, M1Finance.com, but the company secured M1.com, one of only 520 two-character .com domains in existence.<\/p>\n

The price paid for M1.com is unknown, but the value of these short domains can run into the six-to-seven figure range.<\/p>\n

M1 Finance is a well-funded company, raising $323.2 million in disclosed funding. Allocating a relatively small amount of funds to secure M1.com is a smart move by the finance business.<\/p>\n

Gala.com<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since launching in 2018, Gala Games has been redefining the gaming industry. Co-created by Zynga co-founder Eric Schiermeyer, Gala uses blockchain technology to produce pay-to-earn games<\/a> in its own decentralized ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Gala, though, has grown to become more than a gaming company and it has outgrown its original domain, Gala.games.<\/p>\n

The acquisition of Gala.com, discovered in May, has allowed Gala to introduce Gala Music and Gala Film, two initiatives that see the company move beyond its roots as a gaming studio.<\/p>\n

Gala is sensibly housing its Gala Music and Gala Film ventures on the Gala.com domain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every month, hundreds of companies manage to secure a domain name upgrade. Each time this happens, the pool of available premium domain names reduces. Here, I’m highlighting 7 premium domain name upgrades that were revealed or discovered in May 2022. Bux.com If you can’t get your exact-match .com, a path that many startups use is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":3728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDomain Upgrade with James Iles: May 2022 - MediaOptions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Every month, hundreds of companies manage to secure a domain name upgrade. 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