Namecheap and Spaceship Founder Richard Kirkendall Announces .si Domain Launch Tomorrow
Namecheap and Spaceship founder Richard Kirkendall announced that the .si domain will launch tomorrow on these two registrars. The post did not mention pricing, inventory, or registration rules, only stating to stay tuned.
.si is the country code domain for Slovenia, with Register.si as the registry. The public purchase instructions state that it can be registered globally without requiring a Slovenian address or company. As of October 1, Namecheap still shows that it does not support this suffix, while Spaceship shows it is temporarily unavailable. Cloudflare Registrar has also not listed it.
This wave of registrations occurs before the two platforms go live. On September 29, a presidential order required federal agencies to use Super Intelligence and SI in official communications. The registry told the BBC that fewer than 2,000 were added in August, and about 11,000 on September 30. Within 24 hours by Monday afternoon, 20,276 were newly registered, with a total of 46,066 added in the past month, bringing the cumulative total to 298,682. Spokesperson Klara Herman stated that recent activity is unprecedented, but did not attribute all growth solely to this renaming.
Security company Netcraft reported that there were 4,794 new .si registrations within 24 hours after the UN speech, with a single-day total of 13,603 on October 1. Short names and intelligence-related terms were registered in bulk and are now listed for sale. Low-cost channels offer the first year at about $11.45 to $11.99, with higher renewal fees. Namecheap and Spaceship were previously absent, with speculation primarily going to Dynadot and other already active registrars.
Kirkendall simultaneously owns Namecheap, Spaceship, and Thunderbolt. The two retail platforms will launch on the same day, effectively adding a suffix that has already seen a price increase to the public registration entry. He did not mention whether there will be first-year promotions or the terms of integration with Register.si.
This is an expansion of registration access, not a new suffix release. Buyers are domain investors and regular users eager to grab SI abbreviation domains, while sellers are the two platforms that have not previously listed and will start selling tomorrow. The event is driven by the registration surge following the presidential order. Money has already flowed to Dynadot and European registrars, and starting tomorrow, it may also go to Namecheap and Spaceship's retail prices. Beneficiaries are the platforms that fill the channel and those who already hold short names, while those who have not registered yet will face competition in a larger traffic pool.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
.si was originally Slovenia's country code, with fewer than 2,000 added in August. On September 29, a U.S. presidential order changed the official terminology to Super Intelligence and SI, leading to about 11,000 registrations on September 30, 20,276 in the following 24 hours, and a monthly increase of 46,066. The registry's total reached 298,682. The abbreviation was first rewritten by the executive order, and the domain inventory was subsequently taken in bulk by investors.
Namecheap and Spaceship still showed no support on October 1. Kirkendall scheduled the launch for the day after the surge, not on the surge day itself. Capital has already transacted at just over $11 for the first year at Dynadot, INWX, and OVHcloud, with short names later listed on Afternic, Atom, and Sedo. The two public platforms join tomorrow, selling remaining names and renewals, not the first batch of abbreviations.
A comparison can be made to the 2010s when .new and .ai were registered as industry abbreviations, and in 2000 when country codes were speculated as generic terms. The difference this time is that the abbreviation comes from a presidential order, not a name created by the tech community. The registration market is in a diffusion stage: the first batch of available names has already been listed, and the retail entry has just been filled.
Structurally, this represents a transfer of pricing power. The meaning of the two letters has been rewritten by administrative terminology, while the registration rights remain with the Slovenian registry, and the retail price is determined by the later platforms. The mechanism is that once an abbreviation enters official documents, it can be registered globally without a local address. Those who arrive first take the short names, while the later platforms sell the long tail.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
The two letters' official meaning changed, leading to the inventory being quickly depleted.
The retail platforms are a day late, selling only the remaining names.
The price of country codes may not be determined by national demand.