OpenAI acquired the URL “chat.com” but it is now redirected to ChatGPT. HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah previously owned the domain and paid more than $10 million for it. Analysts say the move will strengthen OpenAI’s global reach and consumer products positioning.
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OpenAI’s splashy acquisition of four-letter domain names is a smart strategic move, branding experts told Business Insider.
On Wednesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted “chat.com” on social media. This URL now automatically redirects to the ChatGPT website.
The domain was previously owned by HubSpot founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah, who confirmed that he purchased the domain in 2023 and then sold it to OpenAI. .
Shah did not reveal the exact sale price, but previously said, “I sold it for more than I paid for it.” In a post on Wednesday, he implied that he received OpenAI stock as a result of the transaction.
BREAKING NEWS: The person who secretly acquired the chat .com domain worth over $15 million has been revealed. It’s exactly who you imagine it to be.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you may remember that earlier this year I announced that I had acquired the chat .com domain for an “eight-figure sum”… https://t.co/ nv1IyddP5z
— Dharmesh (@dharmesh) November 6, 2024
OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Is OpenAI trying to make “Chat” the new “Google it”?
The latest additions to OpenAI’s domain collection, which also includes “chatGPT.com” and possibly “ai.com,” signal a pivot for the brand toward a broader consumer base, the brand expert said. The family told BI.
Margarita Polishchuk, head of strategy at Clay, a UI/UX design and branding agency whose clients include Amazon and Google, says OpenAI is “securing and strengthening its position with its new, simpler, and therefore more powerful, domain name. “I’m working on it,” he said.
“It’s very memorable and it’s really spot on,” she told BI. “Strategically, I think for ChatGPT and OpenAI, buying a domain like this signals a move to a very global audience.”
Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot also stick to one-word names, but DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria says the domain is the “most intuitive” domain that represents how consumers think about chatbots. “It’s a great name,” he said.
“I think the hint we can take from this is that they may want to commercialize chat as a consumer product,” he says. The new domain “could be a very important asset in consumer adoption of certain technologies,” he added.
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The new URL may also be a more realistic result of a common linguistic error. Nicole Ferry, chief strategy officer at brand engagement firm Sullivan NYC, said she often notices people rewriting ChatGPT to “GTP.”
“‘ChatGTP’ actually redirects to NinjaChat AI, which is clearly not an OpenAI product,” she said. “So having chat.com just means it’s an easy URL to call to action.”
She also added that the company’s decision to focus on “chat” rather than “GPT” has made the product more approachable.
“Sounds easy,” she said. “I can do that. I chat with my friends on the phone, I chat with them on DMS, etc. I feel like it’s something I can already do and something I have to learn.”
While “chat” has become part of the English lexicon to refer to human interaction, Poliszczuk said this signals a “major technological shift” in how people perceive the term. He said that
“So even if you’re not very tech-savvy, when you type into chat.com, you’re immersed in the world of LLM and AI,” she said.
People may not think “just use ChatGPT,” but if you get a domain with just the word “chat,” AI could become as ubiquitous as “Google,” Poliszczuk said. he said.
