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Research Outline

Prepared for Kevin D. | Delivered September 4, 2020

Country Code TLDs

Goals

To obtain a detailed overview of the county code Top Level Domains (ccTLD) for: Colombia (.CO),
Montenegro (.ME), Antigua (.AI), and British Indian Ocean Territory (.IO). The overview should include: the public launch date and brief history on the launch of the TLD; estimates on total domain registered and domain registrations in 2019; annual domain revenue estimates; details on the organization/company that manages the domain, and how it manages the domain; the pricing of the domains (premium vs generic) and wholesale pricing, where available; any restrictions on the domains registered/to be registered; and notable examples of the domain.

Early Findings

  • In order to better address the plan for this project, we began our research by conducting a search for details Colombia (.CO). We have provided as many details as possible in the initial hour and suggested a research path according to the level of information availability. Please note that only official sources have been used as we do not reference any non-credible sources such as Wikipedia. In addition, we have provided the details found during the initial research so that all the data is in one place if you choose to continue with research we are not duplicating any information already provided.
  • In addition, we have created a spreadsheet with the data found to better organize our findings and ensure we have covered every aspect of the research. If you wish to continue with research please be sure to note if you would like us to continue research by filling out the spreadsheet and providing a minimal write-up, providing a full write-up with no spreadsheet as found below, or providing data in the spreadsheet with a full write up.

Columbia (.CO) Deep Dive

  • Findings have been provided in column C of the attached spreadsheet.

Domains

  • According to GoDaddy, there have been over 2 million .co domains registered since 2010, the current estimate is around 2.4 million.
  • There is no data publicly available that identifies the number of domains registered in 2019.
  • The financials for .CO are private, however, we were able to find a news publication from 2013 that stated the annual revenue for .CO exceeds $25 million. We were unable to find any more recent information.
  • Pricing is not available as the domain is purchased through resellers not directly from the source. The resellers include GoDaddy, Clickpanda, Dominio Ya, Dinahosting, HostDime Colombia, 101 Domain, Mi.com.co, Colombia Hosting, Google, Eurodns, enom., Instra Corporation, Marcaria.com Network, NameAction Domain Latin America, Network Solutions, and DonDominio.

History

  • The .CO domain was initially launched to the public on December 4, 1991.
  • The domain was originally introduced in 1991 and was delegated to Universidad de los Andes. Between 1991 and 2002 there were legal debates on the lagitimacy of the domain as a public domain and on May 7, 2002 it was resolved by the government who stated, “.CO is a public asset in the telecommunications sector, the administration, maintenance and development of which shall be planned, regulated and controlled by the State, through the Ministry of Communications.” By 2006 the government put regulations in place to manage public domain registrations which streamlined the registration process for new domains. The domain has been operating as is since 2010.

Additional Details

Previous Findings

Country-Code Top-Level Domain: .IO

  • The .IO domain is the ccTLD for the British Indian Ocean Territory, and was created in 1997.  
  • According to IANA, the ccTLD .IO manager is the Internet Computer Bureau Ltd   
  • There are over 270,000 .IO domains registered
  • The .IO domain is "facing potential retirement," as the country it is derived from, the Chagos Archipelago, could soon no longer officially exist based on a UN ruling calling on the U.K. to end its administration of the island.
  • The .IO domain registrations "bring in fees of $10 million each year, and the ccTLD has an overall value of around $50 million."

Country-Code Top-Level Domain: .CO

  • The ccTLD .CO was delegated to represent Colombia in 1991, to the Universidad de los Andes.
  • According to Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), the current ccTLD. CO manager is: .CO Internet S.A.S.   
  • According to the Colombian Ministry of Technology, over 2.2 million .CO domains were registered as of October 2019

Country-Code Top-Level Domain: .AI

  • The .AI domain is the ccTLD for Anguilla, and was originally introduced in 1995. In 2009 it was opened to persons or businesses outside Anguilla.
  • According to IANA, the ccTLD .AI manager is the Government of Anguilla, through the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Utilities.

Country-Code Top-Level Domain: .ME

  • The .ME domain is the ccTLD allocated to Montenegro and was introduced in 2006. 
  • According to IANA, the ccTLD .ME manager is the Government of Montenegro, through the University of Montenegro, Faculty of Electrical Engineering.