How Advisors Address .IO Risks with Clients

The .IO ccTLD extension could possibly be “phased out” if sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago is moved to Mauritius. My feeling is that it is highly unlikely the .IO extension will be removed given the number of businesses using .IO domain names. There is still a chance it could happen, and businesses would be forced to change domain names and possibly rebrand if the extension is terminated.

With that potential risk in mind, I was curious to know if industry colleagues are broaching this topic with clients who are interested in buying .IO domain names. I reached out to a small group of people whose companies advise on domain name deals and broker the sale of valuable domain names to ask the following:

Given recent discussions about the potential risks and the future viability of .IO domain names, do you have any updated advice or recommendations for clients considering or currently using .IO domains? Are there specific cautions or considerations you would now mention to clients in light of these concerns?

Several people responded, and I shared their comments below:

“Our job is to prioritize our client’s best interests. Beyond price, a vital part of that responsibility is providing education. Many of our buyers need to be made aware of crucial factors that can significantly impact their investment, and it’s our role to enlighten them when necessary. This isn’t the first time we have heard of a well-established domain extension considering or making drastic changes that disrupted tens of thousands of registrants and businesses.

Take .EU For example, EU registrants in the United Kingdom are being forced to give up their domains due to Brexit. The fact that hundreds of thousands of registrants are effectively being evicted from a domain extension underscores the importance of understanding the risks involved. Buyers need to weigh those risks carefully, and it’s our job to ensure they have the correct information to make informed decisions. At Saw.com, we do our best to provide that clarity.”

– Jeff Gabriel, Saw.com

“While I agree that there is too much revenue involved in the IO tld to retire it, it is once again yet another example, one of so many that I have spoken of over 26 years, of what was once a hot TLD “du jour”, now presenting yet another risk to any brand or company built on it. There are too many risks to name, from people don’t even realize it’s IO and they type in or worse email the .com, to a lack of authority, credibility and trust. There is no better example of this than a X tweet from Gravity’s CEO:

One thing i’ve learned from just a few days of owning the https://t.co/gtXVsKSRLz domain name with a catch all email address is if your company begins contains the word “Gravity” people assume your email address is https://t.co/gtXVsKSRLz. The single word dotcom effect is real.

— Carl Hancock 🚀🇨🇷 (@carlhancock) March 11, 2022

“Now, in addition to all of that, they need to worry about a potential scenario where the extension is obsolete. In order to be a grown-up category leader you need to be .com.”

– Andrew Miller, Hilco Digital

“I’ve helped at least a dozen founders and entrepreneurs acquire .IO domains as a buyer broker. For the last five or so years, I’ve been warning end-user buyer clients (and anyone else who asked me about .IO domains) about the problematic history of the .IO namespace and the genuine risks of building a brand atop such a relatively risky domain. I can’t recall a client ever deciding not to move forward with using a .IO domain because of this, people can be stubborn, but I can imagine a few of them having second thoughts (or at least questions) about their decision now. Thankfully, any end-user of a .IO domain will have at least five years to prepare to migrate to a different domain, should migration even be needed, period, which it probably won’t. I also think some .IO end users will be proactive and start planning to migrate so that they fully control their destiny and guarantee their domain safety. That’s what I would do, since I don’t like uncertainty. I sense some domain upgrade projects in my future…”

– Bill Sweetman, Name Ninja

“I think it’s highly unlikely the .io TLD goes away, regardless of what happens to the sovereignty of the Chagos Island.

It would be a pretty big miss for ICANN to not find a way to maintain the extension, given how many people use it. From a brand, credibility, and not to mention business continuity standpoint, it’s pretty important to find a way to maintain the TLD, either by someone agreeing to take it (ie: what happened with .co moving from Colombia to .CO Internet S.A.S. in ~2009) or by some sort of extension from ICANN.”

– Rob Schutz, Snagged.com

“While I think this will likely be resolved, we always advise a company to think ahead to when they are considering a domain other than the exact match .com. Does it make sense to spend more now and prevent future issues? ccTLDs can carry additional risks that ICANN assigned domains do not. Until recently we heard concerns about how the .ai extension was essentially being run by a single person, for example. Now with .io we will stress even more heavily that they consider other extensions or at the very least have an actionable plan to upgrade in the near future if they are willing to accept the risk.”

– Ryan McKegney, DomainAgents