Unicorns, those private companies characterized by innovation and whose valuation reaches or exceeds one billion dollars, prefer short domain names (1). This was considered by researchers at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and reported by one of the professors, Ilya Strebulaev, on LinkedIn.
On average, unicorns use domain names composed of 8.4 symbols, thus domain names with less than 7 characters have a 36% chance of belonging to unicorn companies. One reason for this result is that short domain names are more likely to attract consumers. Being more attractive, these names are also more expensive to resell. Therefore, once a company enters the unicorn category, it can afford to change its domain name to a shorter one.
Therefore, when creating a company, the search for priorities on the envisaged name is essential both on a legal and marketing level. The search for the domain names makes it possible to identify the names that are relevant to the foreseen activity. Occasionally, they will not be a problem from a legal perspective because they are not used or are used for very different activities. On the other hand, if the .COM or .FR corresponding to the sign is available, it allows the avoidance of a repurchase attempt which can be refused or sometimes accepted for an amount in 6 or 7 figures.
References
(1) https://domainnamewire.com/2022/11/10/stanford-researchers-unicorns-use-shorter-domain-names/ and https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ilyavcandpe_stanford-stanfordgsb-venturecapital-activity-6996498149833891841-30Jq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop