I think it really helped that they attached themselves to the "elite status" of ivy league universities / Harvard at the beginning. Those have worldwide recogni

I think it really helped that they attached themselves to the "elite status" of ivy league universities / Harvard at the beginning. Those have worldwide recognition, so that when they eventually expanded beyond .edu, it still had some of the Brand value of those institutions attached to it, "the smart/cool/rich students of ivy league universities use it, so it must be good", something like that.