In this article, we introduce you to.io, a domain tailored to young or start-up companies working in the technical sector. It is also being embraced by a growing number of IT professionals, as it offers a significant advantage over the traditional .com and .net domains. As its popularity has only just started to grow, there are many more interesting domain names available.

Choosing a good domain name for a start-up company is one of the key steps that can make a significant contribution to the breakthrough and success of a company. Many people do not take enough time to look for a suitable domain name before registering a domain. It is enough that the domain name is solid and that the domain contains one of the two most popular extensions.

If you are one of those people who are satisfied with the best, let us give you a closer look at .io. You may recognise an exceptional opportunity and decide to register a domain that is increasingly in demand.

What do .io and the British Indian Ocean have in common?

Did you know that all national domains are made up of just two letters? The .io domain is no different. It is a national domain belonging to the British Indian Ocean Archipelago. The UK dependent territory is located about halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia and covers an area of 54,400 square kilometres.

The British Indian Ocean Archipelago comprises the seven islands of the Chaos Archipelago with more than 1 000 small islands. The land area is only 60 square kilometers and, interestingly, the geographical area has no permanent inhabitants. The only people who can be counted among them are American and British military personnel, who number on average around 2 500.

Why is .io gaining popularity?

You are probably wondering what is so special about the .io domain extension that has attracted the attention of the IT crowd and start-ups. Although the domain has been available for registration since 1997, it has only started to gain traction a few years ago.

Its rise started when a computer scientist mentioned that the abbreviation IO could represent the notation “input/output“. The latter is widely used in computing, especially in programming. The good idea spread very quickly on the World Wide Web and it was only a matter of time before IT people and entrepreneurs adopted .io as their own.

According to statistics from w3techs.com, approximately 0.15% of all websites are hosted on .io domains. For ease of comparison, here are the figures for .com and .net. The former is estimated to account for 48.7% of websites, while the .net domain is estimated to account for 4.6%. You can now get a better idea of how much easier it is to find a free .io domain compared to .com.

7 reasons to register a .io domain

1. If you are in the IT industry or are just starting up a promising business, registering a .io domain offers you a great opportunity to increase your visibility and quickly penetrate the market.

2. As the popularity of the .io domain extension only started to grow a year or two ago, there are many more domains available than the most popular .com domain.

3. The .io domain extension is very interesting because it is made up of two vowels that can represent the initials for “input/output“. If you choose it, you will undoubtedly stand out on the World Wide Web.

4. Anyone can register an .io domain. It does not matter whether you are a natural or legal person, and the country of residence does not play a role in the registration process. It is open to everyone.

5. With a little originality, you can effectively combine a domain extension with a domain name. Domains such as rad.io, stud.io, scenar.io, pistach.io and portfol.io are unfortunately already taken, but there are bound to be some other good combinations.

6. Many authoritative websites are hosted on .io domains, such as wise.io, fusion.io, import.io, kraken.io, etc. They are also being used by a growing number of entrepreneurs who want to succeed on the global Kickstarter platform for start-up funding. This is why the .io domain is so trusted by online users these days.

7. At NEOSERV, we offer .io domain registration at the cheapest price in Slovenia. If you have a domain in mind and you think you could make great use of it for your online presence, don’t hesitate. We are sure that you will be more than satisfied with your choice!