".io" why so popular?

https://www.namepros.com/blog/why-is-the-io-extension-so-popular.1193757/

https://www.namepros.com/blog/types-of-io-domain-names-that-sell-and-where.1194658/

@Bob Hawkes

The biggest draw to the .io extension is in the tech world where its an abbreviation for Input/Output (I/O)

Other than that, I cannot personally see the draw to the extension.

DomainLockr said:

The biggest draw to the .io extension is in the tech world where its an abbreviation for Input/Output (I/O)

Other than that, I cannot personally see the draw to the extension.

Click to expand...

I cannot personally see the draw to the extension ".io" either. Thanks for your reply.

There's more to it. Some of these arguments have been mentioned by Bob, but I'll put my main arguments here:

I and O key are situated together on most common keyboards configurations, making it fast and easy to type, especially on mobile devices.
IO is shorter than COM. Both of these matter when browsing on mobile devices.
Google considers it to be a gTLD.
IO is more affordable than COM but still carries legitimate weight in tech & gaming branche, which are huge.
Strong association with cryptocurrency, which is bound to have an increasing influence on financial systems.
Then there's popular business networks like apollo.io. Serious and legitimate brands operate on this TLD.
Expensive reg fee means less abuse.

Any software developer will likely visit a .IO domain multiple times a day, since many popular libraries and tools are hosted on IO domains. ( libraries.io, socket.io, jenkins.io, material.io, etc )

As explained in my other thread, most kids & teenagers play or have played .IO games at some point.
Many popular casual games are associated with the .IO extension, so there is a level of familiarity with the domain that will carry over into future generations.

I mean, there's a lot of optimistic speculation going on at this point, but imo it does seem warranted.

I consider ccTLDs to be inherently more stable than newTLDs (a company might go out of business, but a ccTLD can outlive the country, look at .su).

.io is a stable, western "country" (British Indian Ocean Territory, i.e. a military base). Its not going anywhere, and I'd trust .io more than I would trust .al or .dz.

I also think that there are fewer geographical entanglements with .io than, say, with .de or .nl.

Because BIOT is a military base, you're not competing with any local businesses and the domain is a "generic ccTLD".

According to latest Verisign and DomainTools publications, there's about 500k registered .io domains. Which isn't as much as .ru, .de, etc (serious ccTLDs), but still more than .gs with something like 8k registrations.

I'd expect Britain to keep .io alive longer than its other colonies (like .gs, .ms), like Russia kept .su alive.

Short and easy to remember. Has the same name as the computer interface, and some blockchain players hype it.

I think .io is not that Popular but yes its somewhat popular Just like other TLds

From my POV the one of the reasons is that it's easy to type "io" on keyboard. These letters are so close together like "qwerty"

I know some companes that had to choose ".co" because of lack to get ".com" (because of prices), ".net" (because of developed site), .org (because it stands for non-comm).

And if .co is non-available the next one is usually .io extension.