What company registered the first dot-com domain name?
William Jenkins
Updated on January 12, 2026
Symbolics Computer Company
Symbolics Computer Company was the first business to register a commercial dot-com domain name back in 1985, according to a retrospective from HP. Just six companies registered a dot-com domain during 1985, and computer manufacturer Symbolics was the first, having registered for an address in March.
Who created the .com domain?
It was introduced in 1985 by IANA, which is responsible for the overall coordination and management of the DNS; the organization was led by Jon Postel at the time. On January 28, 1986, the entities overseeing the DNS met and restructured its makeup to correspond to 8 TLDs, including .com, the others are: .
What was the first .com website?
Now-defunct Massachusetts computer company Symbolics registered the first dot-com domain, symbolics.com, on March 15, 1985. (Though its machines are long dead, the site lives on.) The World Wide Web, which we use to access the information on the Internet, didn’t even exist yet. It wasn’t launched until 1991.
What is thought to be the oldest domain?
Did you know the first .com domain name that was ever registered was Symbolics.com, on the 15th of March 1985 by the now defunct Massachusetts-based computer manufacturer Symbolics?
What was the purpose of the first domain name registered?
The oldest active domain was registered on January 1, 1985. NORDUnet is a research and education network that was established between Nordic countries. On the other hand, the domain nordu.net was at first registered with the aim of creating a root server and became the first domain to be registered.
How old is a domain name?
Domain age is the age of domain — or how long that domain has existed since its creation. A domain created in 2000, for example, will be 10 years old in 2010 and 20 years old in 2020.
Is .com only for America?
Some of these country-specific domains are closed and only allow citizens and businesses in the country to register. When the World Wide Web started to become popular, its largest growth was in the United States. .com become the de facto American domain as it was widely used by all sorts of American websites.
What is the most visited website in the world?
Google.com
Most popular websites worldwide as of June 2021, by total visits (in billions)
| Characteristic | Number of monthly visits in billions |
|---|---|
| Google.com | 86.9 |
| YouTube.com | 22.8 |
| Facebook.com | 20 |
| Wikipedia.org | 13.6 |
When did symbolics.com register a domain name?
Now THESE are the real forward-looking people. They registered this domain name back on March 15, 1985 before there was a functioning Internet (as we know it today) or even a clear way to use a domain name. In 2009, I reached out to them to see if they would ever consider selling their domain name.
When did Symbolics Computer Corporation get its name?
Let me tell you a bit about the Symbolics Computer Corporation. These are the people who registered the name in 1985, and they were a company way ahead of its time. The original Symbolics company pioneered computer development.
Is the company symbolics.com still in business?
The company and its symbolics.com website continue to exist today. Symbolics maintains the Lisp operating system that is still used by some companies and government agencies, albeit in a very limited way. But in 2009, Symbolics got an unsolicited call from an entrepreneur named Aron Meystedt.
What do you need to know about symbolic systems?
Symbolic Systems offers ordering and information services in the following areas: Australian Company Formations (Australian Shelf Companies) Conversions to single director/shareholder companies