Wrong. Maybe very niche tech & SaaS companies can get away with using .io, but the vast majority of users default to using .com still. If the .com is taken and you have a similar product and go with .co, you're going to be sending people to your competitor by default.Go for the .co
The .com boom has passed.
Does adding "the" at the beginning make sense? As a potential customer or someone you just talked to on the phone, am I going to "get" why it's called theX.com?