.io

Last updated

.io
Nicio.png
Introduced16 September 1997
TLD type Country code top-level domain
StatusActive
Registry Internet Computer Bureau Ltd
Intended useEntities connected with the British Indian Ocean Territory
Actual usePopular with startup companies, browser games
Registration restrictionsNone for 2nd level registrations; 3rd level registrant must be resident of British Indian Ocean Territory
StructureRegistrations are taken directly at the second level or at third level beneath various 2nd-level labels
Documents Terms & Conditions; Rules
Dispute policies Dispute Resolution Policy
DNSSEC yes
Registry website NIC.io

The Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .io is nominally assigned to the British Indian Ocean Territory. [1] The domain is managed by Internet Computer Bureau Ltd, a domain name registry, with registrar services provided by Name.com. [2]

Contents

Google's ad targeting treats .io as a generic top-level domain (gTLD) because "users and website owners frequently see [the domain] as being more generic than country-targeted." [3]

History

The .io domain was delegated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority to British entrepreneur Paul Kane in 1997 together with the ccTLDs .ac (Ascension Island), .sh (St Helena), and .tm (Turkmenistan). Kane operated them for private benefit under the trade name "Internet Computer Bureau" from 1997 until 2017. [4] In 2014, Kane claimed that "profits are distributed to the authorities for them to operate services as they see fit" and that "Each of the overseas territories has an account and the funds are deposited there because obviously the territories have expenses that they incur and it’s offsetting that." However the UK government has repeatedly stated that this is untrue: “There is no agreement between the UK Government and ICB regarding the administration of the .io domain” and "the Government receives no revenues from the sales or administration of this domain." [5] [6] The first subdomain was registered under .IO in 1998, when Levi Strauss & Co. registered the domain levi.io. [7]

In April 2017, Paul Kane sold the Internet Computer Bureau holding company to privately held domain name registry services provider Afilias for $70.17m in cash. [8]

In December 2020, Afilias' owner Hal Lubsen sold it to privately held Donuts for an undisclosed sum. [9]

One month later, in January 2021, Donuts was acquired by private equity firm Ethos Capital, again for an undisclosed sum. [9]

In 2021, the United Nations' International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ruled that the United Kingdom has no sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, and that sovereignty instead belongs to Mauritius. This would extinguish the British Indian Ocean Territory, and the IO ISO-3166 two-letter country code and .io domain could also be extinguished. The United Kingdom, which was not a party to the case, disputes and does not recognise the tribunal's decision, so further legal processes are likely. [10] [11] In 2022, the Mauritian government was considering how to progress the issue. [12]

In July 2021, the Chagos Refugees Group UK submitted a complaint to the Irish government against domain-name speculators Paul Kane and Ethos Capital subsidiary Afilias, seeking repatriation of the .IO ("Indian Ocean") country-code top-level domain and payment of back royalties from the $7m/year in revenue generated by the domain. [13] While attempts to repatriate top-level domains are not uncommon, this one is notable in that it cites consumer and human rights violations of the OECD's 2011 Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises rather than multistakeholder representation under ICANN policy, and because the .io domain has enjoyed commercial success, particularly among cryptocurrency companies, with more than 270,000 domains registered. [8] [14] [15]

Registration and restrictions

Individuals and organisations are allowed to register .io domains.

Labels for .io domains may only contain alphanumeric characters and hyphens, and must be between 3 and 63 characters long. Domain names cannot begin or end with a hyphen symbol, and may not contain two consecutive hyphens. The entire domain name may not contain more than 253 characters. [16]

Applicants for the registration of .io domains do not need to be registered or established in the British Indian Ocean Territory. Third-level domains, such as "xyz.com.io", can only be registered by an inhabitant of the area. (Since there are no legal, permanent inhabitants of the British Indian Ocean Territory, theoretically no third-level domains will be registered.) Any second-level domains used by NIC.IO and top-level domains cannot be used as a third-level domain. For example, the domains "com.com.io", "org.com.io", and "biz.com.io" are all restricted. [17]

Domain names in .io may not be used, "for any purpose that is sexual or pornographic or that is against the statutory laws of any nation." If this requirement is breached, "NIC.IO reserves the right to immediately deactivate the offending registration." [18]

.io domains may be registered for a minimum of one year, and a maximum of 5 years. [19]

Domain names in .io are priced higher than those in many other TLDs. Registering an available .io-domain currently (as of 16 June 2023) costs US$36 per year. [18]

Usage

The .io domain is used almost exclusively for purposes unrelated to the British Indian Ocean Territory.

In computer science, "IO" or "I/O" is commonly used as an abbreviation for input/output, which makes the .io domain desirable for services that want to be associated with technology. .io domains are often used for open source projects, application programming interfaces ("APIs"), startup companies, browser games, and other online services. [20]

The TLD is also used for domain hacks, as the letters "io" are an ending of many English terms. For example, Rub.io is a shortened URL that was used for the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign of Marco Rubio.

One reason given for the TLD's popularity is that it stands out by being shorter than other TLDs. Also, the .io TLD is less occupied than other TLDs, so it is more likely that a given term is available there. [21]

.io games

Around 2015 a multiplayer game, Agar.io , spawned many other games with a similar multiplayer playstyle that used the .io domain, such as Diep.io , Slither.io , Surviv.io , and ZombsRoyale.io . Such games are collectively called ".io games". [22]

Controversy

According to a 2014 Gigaom interview with Paul Kane, then chairman of the Internet Computer Bureau, the domain name registry is required to give some of its profits to the British government, for administration of the British Indian Ocean Territory. [23] After being questioned as a result of the interview, the British Government denied receiving any funds from the sale of .io domain names, and argued that consequently, the profits could not be shared with the Chagossians, the former inhabitants forcibly removed by the British government. [24] Kane, however, contradicted the government's denial. [25] [26]

Related Research Articles

A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last non empty label of a fully qualified domain name. For example, in the domain name www.example.com, the top-level domain is .com. Responsibility for management of most top-level domains is delegated to specific organizations by the ICANN, an Internet multi-stakeholder community, which operates the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and is in charge of maintaining the DNS root zone.

The Internet uses the Domain Name System (DNS) to associate numeric computer IP addresses with human-readable names. The top level of the domain name hierarchy, the DNS root, contains the top-level domains that appear as the suffixes of all Internet domain names. The most widely used DNS root is administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). In addition, several organizations operate alternative DNS roots, often referred to as alt roots. These alternative domain name systems operate their own root name servers and commonly administer their own specific name spaces consisting of custom top-level domains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.info</span> Generic top-level domain

.info is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. The name is derived from information, although registration requirements do not prescribe any particular purpose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.uk</span> Internet country code top-level domain for the United Kingdom

.uk is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United Kingdom. It was first registered in July 1985, seven months after the original generic top-level domains such as .com and the first country code after .us.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chagos Archipelago</span> Archipelago in the Indian Ocean

The Chagos Archipelago or Chagos Islands is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean about 500 kilometres (310 mi) south of the Maldives archipelago. This chain of islands is the southernmost archipelago of the Chagos–Laccadive Ridge, a long submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean. In its north are the Salomon Islands, Nelsons Island and Peros Banhos; towards its south-west are the Three Brothers, Eagle Islands, Egmont Islands and Danger Island; southeast of these is Diego Garcia, by far the largest island. All are low-lying atolls, save for a few extremely small instances, set around lagoons.

A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all two-letter top-level domains are ccTLDs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.in</span> Internet country code top-level domain for India

.in is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for India. It was made available in 1989, four years after original generic top-level domains such as .com, .net and the country code like .us. It is currently administered by the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.la</span> Internet country-code top level domain for Laos

.la is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Laos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.lc</span> Internet country code top-level domain for Saint Lucia

.lc is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Saint Lucia, sponsored by the University of Puerto Rico and created on September 3, 1991. The registry is operated by Afilias and markets towards companies structured as LCs, LLCs or PLCs due to the possibility of a domain hack, such as CompanyName.L.LC and supposedly better names.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afilias</span> Web domain registration company

Afilias, Inc. was a US corporation that was the registry operator of the .info, .mobi and .pro top-level domain, service provider for registry operators of .org, .ngo, .lgbt, .asia, .aero, and a provider of domain name registry services for countries around the world, including .MN (Mongolia), .AG, .BM (Bermuda), .BZ (Belize), .AC, .GI (Gibraltar), .IO .ME (Montenegro), .PR, .SC, .SH, .VC, and .AU (Australia). Afilias also provided ancillary support to other domains, including .SG (Singapore), .LA (Laos), and .HN (Honduras). It was merged into Identity Digital in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.web</span>

.web is a proposed top-level domain (TLD) that was created and assigned by an auction process to several bidding companies. It was awarded to Nu Dot Co LLC, which is primarily funded by Verisign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Indian Ocean Territory</span> British Overseas Territory in the Indian Ocean

The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia. The territory comprises the seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 individual islands, many very small, amounting to a total land area of 60 square kilometres. The largest and most southerly island is Diego Garcia, 27 square kilometres, the site of a Joint Military Facility of the United Kingdom and the United States. Official administration is remote from London, though the local capital is often regarded as being on Diego Garcia.

Paul Kane is chief executive of the British technology firm CommunityDNS and from 2010 to 2017 was one of seven people entrusted with a credit card-like key to restart portions of the World Wide Web or internet which are secured with DNSSEC, after a catastrophic event such as a major security breach or terrorist attack. If such a situation arises, five keyholders will travel to the United States to meet up and restart the DNSSEC system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public Interest Registry</span>

Public Interest Registry is a not-for-profit based in Reston, Virginia, created by the Internet Society in 2002 to manage the .ORG top-level domain. It took over operation of .ORG in January 2003 and launched the .NGO and .ONG top-level domains in March 2015.

Donuts Inc. was a domain name registrar and registry providing paid domain names under 270 new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), as made possible by ICANN's gTLD expansion program, as well as 173 other TLDs including .au (ccTLD) and .org, through its own registry status and contracts between its subsidiaries and other registries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uniregistry</span> Domain name registrar

Uniregistry is a large retail domain name registrar and web services provider; as well as a domain name registry that administers generic top-level domains. In February 2013, the related company Uniregistrar Corporation became an ICANN-accredited registrar and launched under the licensed Uniregistry brand name in 2014. Uniregistry's acquisition by GoDaddy was announced in February 2020.

The Internet Computer Bureau is an Internet top-level domain custodian based in the United Kingdom, which since 2017 has been a subsidiary of Afilias, a United States corporation. The custodian is responsible for maintaining the .io, .sh, and .ac country code top level domains.

Ethos Capital is an American private equity investment firm founded in 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts, in order to make majority and control minority investments in middle-market companies, primarily across North America and Europe. It is best known for attempting and failing to gain control of the .org internet domain.

Identity Digital Inc. is a company with affiliated entities that operate in the domain name industry, including a domain name registrar and registry services provider. The company acquired the registry operator and back-end registry services divisions of Afilias, Inc. in 2020. Both Donuts Inc. and Afilias Inc. were rebranded and brought under the single company brand name Identity Digital in 2022.

References

  1. ↑ IDN Code Points Policy for the .IO Top Level Domain (PDF), NIC.IO, archived from the original (PDF) on 18 December 2005, retrieved 11 December 2005
  2. ↑ "NIC.IO - The Official .IO Domain Registry and Network Information Centre". nic.io. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  3. ↑ "Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites". Archived from the original on 5 October 2019. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  4. ↑ Bridle, James. ".IO: British Indian Ocean Territory". Citizen Ex. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  5. ↑ "British Indian Ocean Territory". UK House of Lords. 10 July 2014. Question (Asked by Lord Avebury): What plans have Her Majesty's Government to share the revenues from the sale of the domain name .io with the people of the Chagos Archipelago including the descendants of those who were evicted from the islands? Answer: The Senior Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government & Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Warsi): 'In much the same way as the .uk domain, the administration of the .io domain has always been carried out by a private sector organisation – this is currently the Internet Computer Bureau. As with the .uk domain, the Government receives no revenues from the sales or administration of this domain, and there are therefore no plans to share these with Chagossians.'
  6. ↑ Bridle, James (8 April 2015). "FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 REQUEST REF: 0347-15" . Retrieved 17 July 2015. There is no agreement between the UK Government and ICB regarding the administration of the .io domain. ICB independently registered the .io domain through the internet governing process – the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) – in the late 1990s. Neither the UK Government nor the BIOT Administration receives revenue from the sale of .io domains, which are administered independently by ICB.
  7. ↑ "whois-search.com - domain name search - Whois Search" . Retrieved 8 March 2021.[ permanent dead link ]
  8. 1 2 Murphy, Kevin (9 November 2018). "Afilias bought .io for $70 million". Domain Incite. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  9. 1 2 Allemann, Andrew (22 January 2021). "Breaking: Ethos Capital acquires Donuts". DomainNameWire. Retrieved 2 August 2021. Donuts acquired Afilias last month, and it made sense that Ethos was involved in the deal on the back end. Ethos had investors eager to put money to work in the domain name business after the .org deal fell through. Akram Attallah, CEO of Donuts, told me today that the company's main focus going forward is working on the integration of Afilias.
  10. ↑ Harding, Andrew (28 January 2021). "UN court rules UK has no sovereignty over Chagos islands". BBC News. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  11. ↑ Mortensen, James; Bashfield, Samuel (21 January 2021). "The Diego Garcia dispute hits cyberspace". The Interpreter. Lowy Institute. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  12. ↑ Bowcott, Owen (21 March 2022). "Mauritius challenges UK rights over Indian Ocean domain name". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  13. ↑ Levy, Jonathan. "COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST Afilias Ltd. (Ireland) including its subsidiaries 101domain GRS Limited (Ireland), Internet Computer Bureau Limited (England & British Indian Ocean Territory) In Respect of OECD Guidelines Violations in Operation of ccTLD .io BEFORE THE IRELAND OECD NATIONAL CONTACT POINT" (PDF). Chagos Refugees Group UK. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  14. ↑ Goldstein, David (30 July 2021). "Chagos Islanders Lodge Complaint With OECD to Get Their .IO Back". Goldstein Report. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  15. ↑ McCarthy, Kieren (27 May 2019). "Uh-oh .io: Question mark hangs over trendy tech startup domains as UN condemns British empire hangover". The Register.
  16. ↑ RFC   1035, Domain names--Implementation and specification, P. Mockapetris (Nov 1987)
  17. ↑ "RULES for the .IO Domain and Sub-Domains". Archived from the original on 23 October 2005. Retrieved 30 July 2005.
  18. 1 2 "Cheapest .io Domain Registration, Renewal, Transfer Prices | TLD-List". spaceship.com. Archived from the original on 29 May 2023. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
  19. ↑ ".IO Domain Name Registration price list". nic.io. Archived from the original on 22 January 2017. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
  20. ↑ "IO Domains in Alexa Top 1 Million". Archived from the original on 27 May 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  21. ↑ "Why are startups turning to .IO?". Name.com Blog. 17 October 2013. Archived from the original on 4 April 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  22. ↑ Takahashi, Dean (2017). "The surprising momentum behind games like Agar.io". VentureBeat . Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  23. ↑ David Meyer (30 June 2014). "The dark side of .io: How the U.K. is making web domain profits from a shady Cold War land deal". gigaom.com. Archived from the original on 5 September 2014. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  24. ↑ ICT.IO (26 October 2016). "The dark side of the .io extension". ict.io. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  25. ↑ "House of Lords Summer Recess 2014 Written Answers and Statements". parliament.uk. 11 August 2014. Archived from the original on 4 April 2019. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
  26. ↑ David Meyer (11 July 2014). "UK government denies receiving .io domain profits". gigaom.com. Archived from the original on 1 May 2015. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
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