What's New: Is the .io domain about to disappear?

(from the latest issue of the Indie Hackers newsletter)

Here's what you'll find in this issue:

• If you have a ".io" domain name, its future could be at risk due to a recent UK transfer of sovereignty. Here's what's up with that.
• A new study links psychological closure with increased SaaS retention rates. The key? Understanding the uncompleted goals of your users.
• Over $500M in closed deals over 4 years. Andrew Gazdecki validated Acquire.com by speaking to hundreds of founders.

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Is the .io domain about to disappear? 💻

Last week, the UK announced it would give the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius. Why are we giving you a crash course on geopolitics?

Well, the British Indian Ocean Territory gives its name to the wildly popular ".io" domain, two letters that could disappear when Mauritius absorbs the territory.

Indie hackers are hotly debating the future of the domain, including the timeline for when it could disappear.

Here's what could happen to new and existing ".io" domains.

Indie Hackers Top Products 🏅

Here are the top products from yesterday:

1. Fernand: A fast and stress-free helpdesk service for SaaS companies.

2. Boringlaunch: A service that submits your AI startup to 100+ platforms over a seven-day period.

3. Deformity: An AI-powered tool for creating interactive forms that engage audiences and boost response rates.

A new study shows psychological closure can increase SaaS retention rates 🧠

The research: Researchers from HBR asked ~2K US participants to choose between paying more for a service now, or paying a bit less in the future.

The results: Almost 86% of participants preferred to pay more upfront for at least one option.

If you understand your users' current uncompleted goals, you can use those as a powerful motivator.

Here's how you can leverage this knowledge to increase conversion rates.

In the news 📰

📉 Is Google losing search market share?

📖 A complete playbook for your customer experience strategy.

📱 TikTok users rely on content creators, not journalists, for news.

⏰ A closer look at Nintendo's adorable Alarmo clock.

💳 The economics of unused gift cards.

Within four years, Andrew Gazdecki changed the M&A industry 💰

Andrew Gazdecki had three successful exits before building his latest product, Acquire.com.

Since launching on Product Hunt in 2020, his company has closed over $500M in deals. He advises founders not to invest everything into your first business. Instead, sell up when it’s making money, and use it as a springboard to a bigger, better business.

These are the most common pitfalls he sees founders fall into when selling a business.

Courtland's tweet pick 🐦

Most people spend years talking about their dreams, but do nothing.

The most important quality in a founder is energy.

The energy to overcome your fears, the energy to take action, the energy to risk failure and criticism, the energy to try. —@csallen

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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Katie Hignett, Darko Gjorgjievski, and James Fleischmann for contributing posts. —Channing