Domain Buying Analysis: Books.io

Let's look at 1 of the domains on my list: Books.io

Depending on how the market responds to ccTLDs in the future, Books.io could be one of the most valuable domains in my portfolio. Or not... it depends a lot on whether some other .io domains get picked up by mainstream people who

1) can't get the keyword anywhere more mainstream
2) take a liking to how "io" looks & sounds

In 2000, the domain Beauty.cc supposedly went for $1,000,000 - heralding a new age in ccTLDs and their value. Well, not all was as it seemed, and afterwards many things came out about how this may have been a deal between 2 friendlies with a stake in making .cc a mainstream domain. I didn't research it too heavily, but I know that after doing business online for 4 years, I've never come into contact with a .cc site that I surfed regularly or did business with. So much for the day of a $$$ million dollar ccTLD (country "top level domain").

Plus 2000 was before the whole dot.bomb implosion, back when Business.com went for $7,000,000 and the market & prices were super inflated.

But back to Books.io. Here are the reasons why I think this is a valuable domain, even in a bizarro ".io" extension:

1- books are one of the hottest selling things online
2- in some cases they sell BETTER online, as user reviews are unavailable to "real world" shoppers
3- the word "books" is not available in any other ccTLD that isn't super obscure & require an in country presence
4- books.com is owned by Barnes & Noble.

As for the .io ending...if some company wanted to get creative and call themselves something like Books Immediately Online - Books.io - that would give them a lot of incentive to acquire this URL. Ah and one little tidbit: the ".tv" people aka Verisign, are offering Books.tv for a mere $25,000 a year! What a deal!

Bottom line: I wouldn't sell this domain for less than $1000 right now, and if the market moves in a positive direction, I might see a day where I can command up to maybe $10,000 for it. I'm a bit wary of setting my expectations that high though, as MORE ccTLDs, and even regular TLDs can come out at any time, making the ".io" extension nearly worthless. I think it would be great fun to be on the marketing team of one of these extensions...seems like thinking up slogans like "immediately online" for .io could really make a difference. The .bz people have pushed for years to establish their ending as the standard for global business, but then the .biz TLD came out - cutting their legs off, essentially. As the proud owner of Spanish.bz this was not good news...