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Today marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most iconic addresses in history: .com.
The domain address now appears at the end of almost every website going, from Apple to Manchester United, Coca Cola to Disney, and the chances are most of us use it every single day.
How different things were 30 years ago, when .com was an unknown entity and companies were hardly falling over themselves to sign up.
The first five companies to snap up a .com were Symbolics, BBN Technologies, Thinking Machines, Microelectronics and Co, and Digital Equipment Corporation – and you’d be forgiven for not recognising any of those names. Arguably the first big name to sign up was Xerox, who were the seventh company to do so – but even they waited almost a year (January 1986) until doing so.
Incidentally, only 11 companies registered for a .com domain in the first year. There are now more than 177 million.
Apple, one of the world’s biggest companies, waited almost two years before getting a .com in their name, becoming the 64th company to do so. But where are the rest of the top 100 now?
Well, MyVoucherCodes.co.uk have been doing some digging, and have put together an infographic on the status of the first 100, including the big names that were quick off the mark and made the list.
Predictably, tech and computing companies made up nearly two thirds (65%) of the first 100 .com domains ever registered.
Surprisingly, manufacturing companies account for 15% of the first 100, ahead of even the IT sector, which only makes up 8% of the first 100.
52% of the earliest domains are still active and serving the same companies that they did back in the 80s. Just under a quarter (24%) of the earliest domains are now dead links.
18% of the first 100 domains redirect to another website which is not associated with the original registrar, while 6% redirect to a new website still owned by the original company.
As expected, some of the world’s most recognisable brands were among the earliest adopters of .com domains, but there are a few surprises.
Xerox were the 7th company to register a domain in January 1986, closely followed by Hewlett-Packard who became the 9th ever company to own a .com in March of that year.
Household names Intel and Siemens were also among the first companies to register a .com domain, and both of them still use the same domains they registered close to 30 years ago.
Given their reputation as one of the most visionary and forward-thinking brands on the planet, one of the biggest surprises is how comparatively late Apple were to the .com party. Apple was registered in February 1987, making it the 64th oldest .com domain.
