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analysis Types of .IO Domain Names That Sell and Where

Spaceship Spaceship
Last week I looked at sale statistics for the .io domain extension, as well as the history and regulatory framework. In this post I analyze the types of names that sell in the extension, plus sales venue statistics. I also take a look at current status of major .io domain name sales.


What Type of Name Sells in .io?

I used NameBio to look at the more than 5300 sales (above $100) in the .io domain extension.
  • The majority of names are English single words, generally common nouns. As NameBio classify them, 52.9% of sales in extension are single English words and an additional 5.5% single Spanish words.
  • A few multiple-word domain names sell in .io, but they are rare. About 11.2% of sales are two-word names, and only 0.4% are three-word names. The higher value two-word sales include CoinPay ($22,500), TheWaller ($10,000), TheWallet ($10,000) and CryptoMarket ($5,525).
  • Short acronyms can sell and more than 24% of .io sales are 2 or 3 characters long.
  • Hyphenated domain name sales are very rare in .io. Only 7 of the 5358 names contained hyphens, all selling at prices less than $500. This is significantly less than for .com or .org and dramatically less than in .de.
  • As far as i know, it is not possible to definitively identify plural names using NameBio. Therefore I used the following approximate method. I searched for names that ended in s, but not in ss using the command s!ss. This will identify most plurals, but not include names like dress or kindness. This method is not perfect, as it does not include plural names that do not end in s, but does include names like Pegasus and DNS that end in s but are not plurals. I found about 14.8% of .io sales are plural names. The true figure is likely slightly less.
  • The highest value plural .io sales were esports ($40,000), worlds ($25,000), payments ($11,000), sports ($11,000), analytics ($10,000), groups ($10,000), casinos ($10,000), tanks ($10,000), tickets ($6700), lenses ($6200) and systems ($5500).
  • While I look at domain length in more detail below, most major sales are quite short. 47.1% of names sold are 5 characters or less. These short domains represent an even larger amount of the sales dollar volume, about 55.7%.
  • Only 4.6% of the sales include one or more numbers. By sales dollar volume, numbered and alphanumeric names represent just 1.9%.
  • There are occasional sales of domain hacks, but not many. The name aud.io sold for $6750 and fol.io for $2000.
  • There are a few alphanumeric sales. For example, there were 66 NL structure names sold, two of them above $1000, and 78 sales of LN format names, with four above $1000. By comparison, there were 45 LL sales and just 19 NN sales.
  • Using the NameBio classification system, there were 109 sales of names in the crypto category, 24 of them above $1000. Crypto names represented quite a few of the higher value two-word sales.
I also went through by hand all .io sales of $6500 and more. My hand analysis suggested the following.
  • The vast majority of high value sales are common dictionary word nouns. Names like cook, home, voice, tile, music, call, kid, food, privacy, studio, gate, bundle, idea, concert, traffic, taxi, beauty, and many others.
  • There are also many sales of common verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Examples include crawl, give, charge, fast, pure, swipe, give, etc. Many words can be used as both nouns and verbs, and sometimes as adjectives or adverbs.
  • There are quite a few major sales related to payment systems. For example, names like swipe, pay, payment, payments, payable, entrust, bid, billing, bank, CoinPay, etc.
  • Not surprisingly math and tech keywords are popular, with major sales including matrix, FN, cloud, library, DB, tech, cipher, robot, wireless, doc, and many others.
  • I noticed a number of astronomy and space terms among the significant sales, including nebula, Pegasus, Titan, orb, pulsar and others.
  • For an extension so popular with coders, there are relatively few high value sales including the word code, only coders and CodeCamp sold at prices above $1000.
How Long Are Most .io Domain Names?

The graph below shows the number of NameBio listed .io sales (above $100) according to length of the domain name. Less than 7% of names sold are longer than 10 characters, and only 0.7% are 15 characters or more.

GraphIOLength.png


I also plotted the average price for each domain length. It should be kept in mind that these are a mix of wholesale acquisitions and retail sales. Prices trail off for .io names longer than 7 characters.

GraphIOPriceLength.png


Sales and Acquisition Venues

Park.io dominates the .io aftermarket with 64.8% of all sales. Keep in mind that sales from marketplaces such as Afternic, DAN, many registrar markets, Efty sites, and the brandable marketplaces are not normally reported to NameBio, but it is still surprising that more than 95% of all reported .io sales are at Park.io, Flippa, Sedo and Dynadot. Note that these are by number, and the Sedo share is higher if reported by sales dollar volume, where they have 18.5%. The venues shown here are the ones available in NameBio venue list. They account for most, but not all, of NameBio-listed sales in extension. A number of sales not plotted were at Uniregistry.

VenueIO.png


I also looked at sales less than $100 using NameBio membership data. There were 7215 sales in this price range, supposedly all wholesale acquisitions, with almost 98% of them are at Park.IO, Flippa, Dynadot and Sav.


A Brief Look at End Users

Sometimes looking at how the high-value sales are being used in an extension provides insights on good investment niches. I looked at use of the 20 highest value.io sales, $20,000 or more.
  • A full 45% of the sites were unused the day I checked, including 20% listed for sale again. Names for sale again include bang, CoinPay and studio. The names FN, cook, tank and matrix were unreachable or yielded a bad request, while esports is parked but not obviously for sale.
  • There is a cyptocurrency site at swipe.io.
  • The name lucky.io is not surprisingly an online casino site.
  • Library.io is used for 3D printing documents related to Autodesk.
  • A workplace and process auditing company uses ease.io.
  • The name worlds.io could be used in many ways, but there is an artificial intelligence company at the site.
  • Home.io is another cryptocurrency site, which surprisingly did not use https the day I checked.
  • I wondered what I would find at doc.io and it is a site for Microsoft documents.
  • Manual.io is a versatile name that is being used for a digital manual service.
  • Another cryptocurrency company is at gate.io.
  • FB.io redirects to another .io site FirstBlood.io which is a gaming site.
It is difficult to conclude with certainty from such a small sample, but it seems .io is finding major use in the cryptocurrency and payment sectors, and is also popular for online document delivery.

Those seeking a broader look at companies using the .io extension are referred to this study by James Iles 7% of 2020 startups are using .io, as well as the one at the Dofo Blog that found 5.8% of Y Combinator companies use a .io extension domain name.


Final Thoughts

In a way, investing in .io domain names is simple: seek out relatively short, common dictionary words that might serve as a brand. However, the vast majority of such words are already registered, so finding dropping names, or purchases from other domain investors, are the normal acquisition routes.

Do you feel that, as more names become registered in .io, we will see a higher percentage of multiple-word domain names, and also made-up words as brands will become more common in the extension?

One positive is that there are not, as I understand it, registry premium names. However, registrations and renewals are relatively expensive for all .io domain names, so it is critical to make good acquisition choices.

I urge readers who invest in .io domain names to share where you acquire your names, and the types of names that you think are most likely to sell.

While please don’t list your entire portfolio, feel free to share a few names you hold that you think represent the sort of .io names with sound investment prospects.

It would also be interesting to hear where you list your .io names for sale, and what venues have resulted in sales.

If you missed part one, it covered sales statistics, history and possible warning signs.



Special thanks to Michael and NameBio for the database that makes analyses such as this one both possible and relatively easy.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
I acquired my most expensive .io (Solidity/io) through park.io for $4200. Solidity is the #1 Smart Contract Programming language commonly used for smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. The Ethereum Foundation has been interested in buying the domain but they have many big internal hurdles to go through.

I've commonly sold other crypto .io domains from $250-800. Mostly short two words and one word plurals.

Eth/io is for sale here by a user for $32,000 which I think is a fair value.

My short list of notable:

Solidity
Valentines
AirConditioner
EthereumWallet
EtherBlocks
Stakers
Tiff
 
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Thank you Bob for this and part one. A wonderful education into the mindset behind .io sales.
 
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Thanks @Bob Hawkes! I am just getting started on Park.io and found this while doing my research. Just picked up my first .io name and hope to get many more!
 
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Thank you love the detail and breakdown
thank for sharing!!!

www.cactucroc.com
VOIGHT THORNTON
 
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Just a clarification, while I think it would be interesting for those with .io portfolios to list a few of their better names, if they so wish, possibly with comments, please don't use the comments thread as a way to try to sell your domain names. Sorry if this was not clear earlier.

Thanks to those who have shared small selections of their best names, and accounts of sales success (or not) in the extension.

Bob
Bob...i happen to live on Broad Bay near Crab Creek in Virginia Beach, and since I recently bought the domain BroadBayRealty.com and CrabCreekRealty.com your post inspired me to buy the following;

BroadBay.io
and
CrabCreek.io

Also, i might be looking to TM both names for generic technology use if there is such a thing. How do you like the looks of; BroadBay® and CrabCreek®? Thanks Bob(y)
 
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I just want to share my story of regret. I missed .com. Then I started seeing .io domains mushrooming in the tech scene, but instead, I spent a fortune buying .id (which just exited landrush period). Both were premium compared to .com, so I had to pick. Just say I'm an idiot.
 
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I own

CoinBid.io

Still thinking where the end users will come from.
I just own a few, but I'm thinking of selling mine for tech startups. I saw "ENDEAVR" on a vanity tag this afternoon and it looked so good I just picked up Endeavr.io. I'm an old guy, but if i were to start a tech company I'd name id Endeavr™ in a heartbeat. Good Luck(y)
 
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I just want to share my story of regret. I missed .com. Then I started seeing .io domains mushrooming in the tech scene, but instead, I spent a fortune buying .id (which just exited landrush period). Both were premium compared to .com, so I had to pick. Just say I'm an idiot.
Do post in the meet and greet -section who you are : lots of people will get you welcome and give a like.
Do know you can also ask for the important threads to read for newbies (so that you don't have to ask things again that are already anwerred in earlier threads).
:)
 
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Nice article Bob.

I own few but with two and three words. And they have been just added in BB for review. Few other names I registered from own research and I am trying do the sales outbound or through aftermarket.

BB potential names
1. MobileKitchen.io
2. ORON.io

Self explored and registered
1. USMAP.io
2. FreeAuction.io
 
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Great article Bob...does park.io allow sellers to list in auctions?
 
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Park.io has always been an enigma to me.

I would love to read a full and detailed investigation into them.
 
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I love to Buy .io domains. Below are few:

Entertainment.io

iBlockchain.io
2023.io
E-Token.io
ZWallet.io
Fintechx.io
iFintech.io
TopToken.io
Coin-Market.io
CryptoLeaks.io
Digitalshop.io
Creditwallet.io
FintechGroup.io
Crypto-Market.io
Bitcoin-wallet.io
 
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Great article Bob...does park.io allow sellers to list in auctions?
My understanding is that at the moment people can not list their .io domain names at Park.io.
It started as an expiry stream, and continues predominantly that.
In my chat with Steve Webb, he indicated that allowing user auctions at Park.io was definitely on their radar, and they had tried it with a handful of selected .io names. I am speculating, but that was probably was the case for the metaverse sale that sold twice on their platform. Obviously they want to make sure that the quality of names does not go down significantly.
Bob
 
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As always, I'm late to the party. But I did grab a few one-word names. I was surprised seeing how aggressively some names were being bid on at Sedo and Park. Yes, the quality and meaning of the words were of direct consequence, so they weren't some random sales. I'm sure these must be investors battling out to get good names, but nonetheless, good money.
I registered 'acing' and 'devolve' in this extension. I'm a bit wary of getting 2-word combinations unless it makes a lot of sense.
 
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Anyone checking Park.io sales lately? :xf.eek:
  • rabbit.io
    Sold for $48,888.00
  • yh.io
    Sold for $25,000.00

And loads of others selling for upwards of $10,000. Even better, and not surprisingly, are some Sedo auctions recently. https://namebio.com/?s==ETOxgDM3IzM

I am pretty sure a bunch of those expired names may have been from resellers who let their names drop since no sales were happening and then people pick up these expired names like hot cakes. I'm curious as to what this tells us about instincts? I feel that often times an original seller may be selling for 'x' amount or less and people might not show interest in it. If it is up for grabs at an auction and others want it too, they suddenly feel more motivated to splurge 2x or more for the same! :xf.rolleyes:
 
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Too much fake news nowadays, always keep this in mind.
 
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Park.io has always been an enigma to me.

I would love to read a full and detailed investigation into them.

Enigma in what way. Most of the big end user sales, everyone in the .io space know who the buyers are, and they are buying because they are selling as well.


Great article Bob...does park.io allow sellers to list in auctions?

They don't but the owner lists his own name from time to time as well as domains that belong to users who know him personally and have been members from the start. But it is not open to public yet.
 
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Thanks for the post, very informative. I missed out on .io, just did not see it as a good extension, certainly called that wrong!
 
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Thanks for the post, very informative. I missed out on .io, just did not see it as a good extension, certainly called that wrong!
If you could buy a 1 word .com for $xxxx you probably would. You haven’t missed anything imo.
 
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Thanks for the post, very informative. I missed out on .io, just did not see it as a good extension, certainly called that wrong!
I started buying in November 2020, and I have already sold 3 names totalling a little over 10K from a small portfolio of 40 names and i would have sold more had I not submitted my better names to brandbucket, and they moonshot those names :) but I am hopeful I BB will get me those prices
 
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JobMate.io
Thought of it as brandable, no luck so far.
 
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Nice post Bob. I own patio.io and catec.io
 
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Not yet one .io domain in portfolio.

But yet already created a list to register in future for a specific area.

Wich .io registrar you use and why?

Anything we have to know before register a .io domain?

Thank you!

GLTA
 
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