Ammar Kubba Shares Rationale Behind 5 Figure .IO Purchase

On Saturday evening, Ammar Kubba shared a screenshot of his mobile phone home screen with an email notification from American Express Platinum showing a purchase of $18,888 at Park.io. In his tweet, Ammar asked people to guess what he just bought. What was most surprising to me wasn’t that Ammar spent nearly $20k on a .IO domain name, but that Ammar doesn’t use an AmEx Centurion card:

Lack of a Black card aside, people were able to guess that the domain name Ammar bought was XO.io. Domain investor Josh Schoen later asked Ammar if he could explain his thinking about spending nearly $20k for a .IO domain name as an investment. Being the good guy that he is, Ammar obliged, and I thought I would share his series of tweets discussing why he bought the domain name:

(Author’s note, #3 appears to have been deleted)

I am not a .IO guy (perhaps to my detriment), but Ammar’s analysis of his acquisition is a great read.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

11 COMMENTS

  1. There are a lot better ways to put $20k to work on domains right now and that’s on .COM.
    Buy Ammar is a smart guy and probably has money to burn. So, why not.
    But, he missed the .io and crypto frenzy boat though. Buying this domain 1 or 2 years ago would of been better timing IMO.

    • These extensions are not even registered with XO prefix and would of been cheaper investments with less risk:

      xo.today $118.80
      xo.services $79.20
      xo.technology $79.20

      and theres more.

      So XO is not that rare of a 2 character domain name.

      • What is the renewal cost for .IO vs those?

        I have seen far more .IO domain names being used – especially by funded (or funding pending) startups than any of those other extensions.

        • The purchase prices are renewal prices as well.
          .io renewal is around $50 depending where you buy the domain at.

          He paid an end-user price for the domain IMO. But you never know, he might be able to sell it for more. Good luck Ammar!

  2. Besides the extensions that are purely targeted for their countries and regions( .de, ,eu, .asia, .uk/co.uk), which of the country code extensions that have been repurposed have the highest average domain sales in the aftermarket? .Me, .IO. .Ai, .IT. .CO?
    Is there a link?
    Per the xo.io purchase, I like Ammar’s reasoning — 2 letters, xo is common term. Wise investment. And I agree XO.com is worth 7 figures, so XO.io should be worth 2% or higher.

  3. It might be hard to sell it to an end user because “XO” appears to be trademarked by the company at XO.com, which is owned by Verizon. I leased some servers from them 15-20 years ago, so they are a real company.

  4. Thanks, Ethan
    But I was more interested in the average aftermarket confirmed sale per extension.
    I believe it may be either .io or .ai. I believe the average reported aftermarket sale for .me is about 2500 USD. .CO was higher, but it has declined.
    Of course, .com is the king, by a large margin — not in average .com aftermarket sale, but when valuing domains (Date,com, Date.co, Date.ai, Date.me, Date.io) — although .io and .ai are better suited outside dating, and more suited for tech, so those really aren’t good examples. Robot.com is worth at least 50 X Robot.ai and Robot.io

  5. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen him carrying the black card. Bought me a meal at least once. Some people carry more than 1 card

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recent Posts

Consider Removing “WHOIS” from Domain Name Contracts

0
I use several different domain name purchase or sale agreements depending on the situation. Each of these agreements references "WHOIS" as a means of...

I Appreciate Having a Broker as a Counterparty

1
I appreciate being able to discuss the sale of a domain name with a domain broker representing a third party. Not only does this...

Gong.com UDRP Should be RDNH

1
The Gong Show was a television talent show on ABC in the late 1970s. Contestants would perform a variety of acts while being judged...

Top 5 Domain Names in 2025 Super Bowl Commercials

3
The Super Bowl was played last night, and a great deal of attention was on the Super Bowl commercials. In the recent past, domain...

Samba.com Now Forwarding to Samba.tv

3
Three weeks ago, Samba.com sold for $143,000 in a NameJet expiry auction. Samba.com is an exceptional domain name, and there are many branded companies...