Domain Gang has published curious statistics: according to its information, as of yesterday, the national domain of Anguilla (.AI) has only 574 domain names of three letters available for registration. Three-letter domain names are traditionally considered to be most attractive and valuable for domain investors. Since English alphabet consists of 26 letters, the total number of possible three-letter combinations is 17 576 (26х26х26). The more popular a domain zone becomes, the more actively all possible three-letter names are registered within it.
The generic top-level domain .COM registered all such names way back 10 years ago. Since then, three-letter names with .COM extension may only be purchased at the secondary market; that said, the lower price limit is estimated in tens of thousands of dollars, while it looks like the upper limit simply does not exist. And the national domain of Anguilla, riding the wave of AI technologies’ popularity is confidently following in the .COM footsteps.
Still, there is a major difference: names in the .AI domain cost much more. The price of one name’s annual registration may reach $80 with the minimal registration term of two years. And the need to pay at least $160 for one domain somewhat restrains the inflow of speculative registrations. However, as can be seen from the statistics above, this barrier has almost been cleared. The 574 three-letter names remaining available for registration in .AI means that more than 96 percent of such names in the domain zone have already been registered. And the day when a three-letter name in Anguilla’s national domain will only be possible to purchase at the secondary market is, apparently, not that far.
