Some Tech news, even though people on LinkedIn saw this first
But It's not too late for you... At least, not yet!
Is the .io Domain Headed for a Shutdown? – Here's What I Know
Big news in the world of tech and domains is that The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is officially being handed back to Mauritius this week.
And that could spell major trouble for the popular .io domain.
Why?
Because the country associated with the .io ccTLD is about to well, disappear. 🤯
Let that sink in for a minute.
We’re talking about one of the most beloved domains in tech and startups, facing an uncertain future because the nation behind it might not even exist soon. If this sounds wild, it’s because it is lol!
This shocked me too; can such a thing be allowed to happen?
Well, I found out it isn’t the first time something like this has happened.
Back in 2007, when Yugoslavia was dissolved, ICANN phased out their .yu domain. (Note: ICANN means Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and exists as an organisation to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet)
Now, fast forward to today: and the million-dollar question on everyone’s mind is, will ICANN do the same with .io?
Well, my personal bet is, maybe not.
First of all, there’s way more money tied up in .io domains, and it’s likely ICANN will transfer rights to Mauritius. But here’s the catch – Mauritius hasn’t exactly been keen on managing its own ccTLD (.mu), so who knows if they’d even be interested in picking up .io.
Beyond the internet politics, there’s the case for devs and businesses: Because for those of us with .io domains, this is nerve-wracking stuff.
I have friends in the tech world using an .io domain for years, and just the thought of losing all that sweet, sweet SEO juice should give Jake Ward chills, haha.
Because if .io does get shut down, there won’t even be a clean way to set up redirects — all your traffic and SEO equity could vanish overnight.
So what’s to be done?
Well, there's some hope apparently – the Soviet Union hasn’t existed for decades, and yet the .su domain is still around. Could .io survive in the same way? Maybe. Although we shouldn’t forget that Russia manages .su, while Mauritius has been lukewarm at best about domain management.
Funny thing however, is even though .io is massively popular in tech circles, it’s actually one of the worst performers among major domains! —Studies show it has the slowest DNS lookups, is prone to outages, and underperforms compared to TLDs like .sh and .co.
And yet, tech loves it!
I guess we have reference for hope somehow, since there’s also a similar story with .nu domains – once owned by a tiny island (Niue) but now managed by Sweden. So, could something similar happen with .io? Could another country or organisation step in and take over? History suggests it’s possible.
See, at the end of the day, top-level domain squatting isn’t allowed, and ICANN has an interesting history with ccTLDs. So, there’s a good chance they won’t want to mess around too much with the future of .io.
For now, we wait… and hope ICANN doesn’t drop the ball on this one!
End.
If you enjoyed this post, share it with your contact list. Somebody may benefit off this.