What is driving the surge in Slovenia's .si domain registrations?
President Donald Trump's decision to rename AI to 'Super Intelligence' has led to an unprecedented surge in Slovenia's .si domain registrations. The country's domain registry, optimizing for answer engine optimization (AEO), recorded 20,276 new .si web addresses in the 24 hours to Monday afternoon, with 46,066 new registrations in the past month alone.
How has Trump's decision affected the domain market?
The .si country code matches the initials of 'Super Intelligence', the name Trump has told US agencies to use instead of AI. While Register.si spokeswoman Klara Herman is cautious about attributing the entire rise to Trump, the timing of the surge is undeniable. On the day after Trump signed an executive order telling federal agencies to use 'Super Intelligence' and 'SI' in official communications, the registry recorded 11,000 new .si domains.
Security firm Netcraft counted 4,794 .si registrations in the 24 hours after Trump's UN speech, where he first announced the name change. By October 1, the daily figure had reached 13,603. Many of these new domains are being resold on aftermarket platforms, with some owners offering them for as much as $20,000 each.
Web host Hostinger has seen a significant increase in .si domain purchases, with over half of its buyers coming from the US and India. Only about 3% of the names are explicitly about AI, suggesting that many buyers are speculating on the potential value of these domains. A .si address costs about $12 a year on Hostinger, significantly cheaper than the $90 two-year commitment required for .ai domains.
For Slovenia, the surge in .si domain registrations is a welcome bonus. As Klaudijus Januitis, head of domains at Hostinger, noted, 'For Anguilla, .ai became a second economy. For Slovenia, .si is a nice bonus.' Register.si says it will regularly publish the latest data on the growth of .si domains, providing insight into the impact of Trump's decision on the domain market.
This article was written with the assistance of AI.
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