Country code top-level domains with commercial licenses are
Internet country code top-level domain that have adopted a policy for worldwide commercial use.
Some of the world's smallest countries have opened their country code domain to worldwide registrations for commercial purposes. For example,
Tuvalu and the
Federated States of Micronesia, small island-states in the Pacific, have partnered with
VeriSign and FSM Telecommunications respectively, to sell domain name registrations using the and TLDs to television and radio stations.
Some commercially available ccTLDs are in demand for use outside their home countries because their name can provide a component of a meaningful word or phrase. These are sometimes referred to as vanity ccTLDs.
List of ccTLDs permitting worldwide commercial use
* (
Ascension Island
Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island, 7°56′ south of the Equator in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is about from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America. It is governed as part of the British Overseas Territory o ...
) is sometimes used to stand for "Access Connection" or "Access Card". It is occasionally used by universities to stand for "academic", for example by the
University of Kurdistan – Hawler () or
Ralston College Ralston College is an institution of higher education that offers in-person degree programs as well as online programs. It began its first in-person offering, an MA in the Humanities, in autumn of 2022 with the authority to grant degrees. Its first ...
(),
* (
Andorra) has recently been increasingly used by advertising agencies or
classified advertising
Classified advertising is a form of advertising, particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals, which may be sold or distributed free of charge. Classified advertisements are much cheaper than larger display advertisements used ...
.
* (
Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda (, ) is a sovereign country in the West Indies. It lies at the juncture of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean in the Leeward Islands part of the Lesser Antilles, at 17°N latitude. The country consists of two maj ...
) is sometimes used for agricultural sites. In
Germany and German-speaking countries, AG (short for
Aktiengesellschaft
(; abbreviated AG, ) is a German word for a corporation limited by Share (finance), share ownership (i.e. one which is owned by its shareholders) whose shares may be traded on a stock market. The term is used in Germany, Austria, Switzerland (wh ...
) is appended to the name of a stock-based company, similar to
Inc. in
USA
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
.
* (
Armenia) is often used for
AM radio stations, or for
domain hacks.
* (
American Samoa) In Estonia, Denmark and Norway,
AS is appended to the name of a stock-based company, similar to Inc. in USA. In Czech Republic and Slovakia, the joint stock corporation a.s. abbreviation stands for
:cs:Akciová společnost.
* (
Austria) is used for English words ending in "at".
* (
Belgium) is sometimes used for the literal term "be". It is also used in some download sites as the end of the word "tube" such as , a site for the downloading of
YouTube videos. YouTube site is accessible through domain, registered by
Google itself.
* (
Belarus) is sometimes used in Germany, as "BY" is the official abbreviation of the state
Bayern.
* (
Canada) is occasionally used to create domain hacks like , the web domain of
The Historica Dominion Institute. This type of use is limited by the .ca domain's Canadian residence requirements.
* (
Cocos (Keeling) Islands) is used for a wide variety of sites such as community colleges, especially before such institutions were allowed to use .edu. It is also used by some churches as an abbreviation of Christian church. For example, www.gracechurch.cc, www.bible.cc, www.saintjohns.cc
* (
Democratic Republic of Congo) is used for CD merchants and file sharing sites.
* (
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
) is used for a number of church websites.
* (
Cook Islands) was notably abused in
Chris Morris's Nathan Barley
''Nathan Barley'' is a British Channel 4 television sitcom written by Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris, starring Nicholas Burns, Julian Barratt, Claire Keelan, Richard Ayoade, Ben Whishaw, Rhys Thomas and Charlie Condou. The series of six we ...
by preceding it with ".co" in order to spell out the word "cock" (.co.ck as in ).
* (
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
) is marketed as commercial, corporation, or company.
[ What makes .CO such a unique opportunity?]
* (
Djibouti) is used for CD merchants and
disc jockies (DJs, as in deejay).
* (
Spain) is used for forming plural words (e.g. in English ).
* (
Finland) is used as a domain hack by
Eye-Fi
Eye-Fi was a company based in Mountain View, California, that produced SD memory cards with Wi-Fi capabilities. Using an Eye-Fi card inside a digital camera, one could wirelessly and automatically upload digital photos to a local computer or a ...
(), a maker of memory cards with Wi-Fi capabilities.
* (the
Federated States of Micronesia) is often used for
FM radio stations (and even non-FM stations, such as
internet radio stations).
* (Greenland) is often used for
Galician or
Galicia
Galicia may refer to:
Geographic regions
* Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain
** Gallaecia, a Roman province
** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia
** The medieval King ...
-related sites, in waiting for the domain. This TLD is also used by Google's link shortening and analytics service Goo.gl.
* (Guernsey) is often used by the gaming and gambling industry, particularly in relation to horse racing and online poker.
* (the Isle of Man) is often used by instant messaging programs and services.
* (India) is widely used in the internet industry.
* (the British Indian Ocean Territory). Notable examples are online storage site Drop.io and task list site Done.io. Commonly used by tech companies or individuals for its relation to Input/Output.
* (Iceland) is used as the English verb, "to be" in conjunction with a directory name suffix to complete a linguistically correct sentence (for example, "
.is/" or "<noun>.is/<adjective>).
* (Iran) is used in domain hacks (e.g. .has.ir).
* (Italy) is the third-person neuter pronoun in English and is used for domains such as .
* (Jersey) is often used as a diminutive in Dutch (e.g. "huis.je"), as "your" ("zoek.je" = "search your"), or as "I" in French (e.g. "moi.je").
* (Laos) is marketed as suggesting Los Angeles or Latin America.
* (Liechtenstein) is marketed as meaning Long Island.
* (Latvia) is also used to abbreviate Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas or less frequently, love.
* (Libya) is also used for words ending with suffix "ly".
* (Moldova) is marketed to the medical industry (as in "medical domain" or "medical doctor").
* (Montenegro) was opened in 2008,
See also
* Country code top-level domain
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Country Code Top-Level Domains with commercial licenses
Top-level domains
Country codes
Domain Name System