Trump's 'super intelligence' push sends Slovenia's .si domain registrations soaring
What's the story
The .si domain, associated with Slovenia, is witnessing a massive surge in registrations. The spike comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing all government agencies to refer to "AI" and "artificial intelligence" as "SI" and "super intelligence." The trend is reminiscent of the early days of the AI boom when the Anguilla-based .ai domain saw a similar surge in interest and revenue.
Registration surge
Massive surge in .si registrations
Klara Herman, a spokesperson for Registry SI, the official body managing Slovenia's domains, revealed a staggering 2,199% increase in .si domain registrations in September.
However, she was careful not to attribute this spike solely to President Trump's executive order.
The day after the order was signed, on September 30, saw 11,000 new .si domains registered.
Hosting trends
Most registrations from US and India
Web hosting platform Hostinger has also seen a massive spike in .si registrations.
The company told Techcrunch that nearly 4,300 customers registered .si on September 30 and about 5,400 on October 1 alone.
More than three-quarters of all .si domains registered since September 23 were done in the last two days.
Interestingly, over half of these registrations came from the US and India.
Market speculation
Speculative element at play
Despite the spike, only around 3% of the newly registered .si domains are directly related to AI.
Most are "unclassified," meaning their names don't fit into any specific category.
While many registrants appear to be individuals and businesses, there is also a speculative element at play. Some people may be buying these domains with plans to resell them later at higher prices.
Future outlook
What's next for .si?
Klaudijus Januitis, the head of domains at Hostinger, expects the demand for .si to continue growing. However, he doesn't believe this domain will replace .ai anytime soon.
He sees .si as a more accessible and affordable second option for those who missed out on the initial AI boom with Anguilla's premium-priced .ai domain.