Premium usernames are short, memorable, and in high demand. Single characters (a-z, 0-9), two-letter combinations, common words (pro, dev, ai, vip), and industry terms all command premium prices. Twitter reportedly sold @NBA, @NFL, and other sports handles for six figures before the platform even launched.
The economics are straightforward. A three-character username on most platforms is worth $500-5000. Two characters: $5000-50000. Single characters: $50000 and up. These are not hypothetical — there is an active secondary market for premium handles, with brokers specializing in username acquisitions.
For platform builders, premium usernames represent uncaptured value. If you give away @ai for free on day one, you cannot sell it for $10000 later. The smart approach is reserving premium handles at launch, then releasing them strategically — through auctions, as partnership incentives, or as paid verification perks.
Detection is the tricky part. You need to identify which usernames are premium before users try to register them. Length is obvious — anything under 4 characters is probably valuable. But words matter too. @cloud, @crypto, @design, and @music are all premium even though they are longer. Pattern matching and dictionary lookups help, but a purpose-built API handles this reliably.