.IO is a ccTLD which stands for Indian Ocean (British Territory). This domain extension was released back in 1997, but it wasn’t until recently that it started to get some serious attention in the domain industry.
These days, .IO domains are hot among startup companies, as well as open source projects and people using them as domain hacks.
I never jumped on board with the whole .IO craze because I don’t like domain hacks or ccTLDs. Yes, recent sales would indicate that the domain extension is going strong, but it doesn’t really excite me.
I normally do not buy domain names to flip them. When I buy or register a domain, I buy it for long-term investment or to possibly develop in the future. So, as far as I am concerned, it doesn’t fit into my game plan.
Just to give you an idea of the .IO sales market, here are some current listings at Flippa (which happens to be the hot spot for .IO domains):
- Tablets.io – currently at $300 with 5 bids.
- Broker.io – currently at $250 with 27 bids.
- Modify.io – currently at $305 with 5 bids.
- TTV.io – currently at $205 with 38 bids.
- Interview.io – currently $125 with 15 bids.
All of these listings still have a good amount of time left so you can assume these numbers will be considerably higher near auction end.
The keywords to the left of the dot are pretty good, and you could assume if these were sitting on a .COM extension, they’d be worth a lot more. But considering these are not even .NETs or .ORGs, they are doing pretty well. Based on my observation of the current market, .IO seems to be creeping up in value close to .INFO.
What do you think of the current state of the .IO market?