.ch
 | |
| Introduced | 20 May 1987 |
|---|---|
| TLDtype | Country code top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | SWITCH Information Technology Services |
| Sponsor | SWITCH Information Technology Services |
| Intended use | Entities connected withSwitzerland |
| Actual use | Very popular in Switzerland and also used around the world for domain hacks |
| Registered domains | 2,564,228 (2024-01-15)[1] |
| Registration restrictions | Two letter domain names are restricted tocantons |
| Structure | Registrations permitted at second level |
| Documents | Terms and conditions |
| Dispute policies | Dispute Resolution Proceedings |
| DNSSEC | Yes |
| Registry website | www |
.chis thecountry codetop-level domain(ccTLD) forSwitzerlandin theDomain Name Systemof theInternet.Made available in 1987,[2]only two years after,it is administered bySWITCH Information Technology Services.[3]
The domainch,as with other ccTLDs, is based on theISO 3166-2code for Switzerland derived fromConfoederatio Helvetica(Helvetic Confederation),[4]theLatinname for the country, which was used because of its neutrality with regard to the four officiallanguages of Switzerland.
Second-level domain names must be at least three letters long. Two-letter subdomain names are restricted to theSwiss cantons,as well as the domain ch.ch of theFederal Chancellery of Switzerland.The only exception has been the former domain of theExpo.02which was held in Switzerland, expo.02.ch.[citation needed]
Registrations ofinternationalized domain nameshave been accepted since March 2004.[citation needed]
In the Chinese domain market[edit]
.ch has been of a rising interest to Chinese domain investors for several reasons. According to EuropeID, the domain.ch still has many valuable English keywords and short letter and number combinations left. A contributing factor may be because the majority of.ch registrations are in German, leaving many English words available. In addition, with two million domains under.ch being registered, most of the reserved domains have the European market in mind, allowing valuable domains for other languages such as Chinese keywords in the Latin script being registered at a normal price.[2]
Domain hacks[edit]
The.ch domain is very popular indomain hacks,used to spell words and names that end in "ch": for example,Techcrunch's tcrn.ch. This phenomenon is not limited to English; to take another example, the domain scha.ch (Schach,Germanfor "chess") has been registered.
.swiss[edit]
TheFederal Office of Communications(OFCOM) has begun registering.swissdomains as of 7 September 2015.[5]This is meant to augment the traditional.chTLD. Applicants must currently have a "registered place of business and a physical administrative base in Switzerland" to apply.[6]
References[edit]
- ^"Domain Names - Statistics".Switch.2024-01-18.Archivedfrom the original on 2024-01-18.Retrieved2024-01-18.
- ^abEuropeID (5 July 2016).".CH's Growing Popularity as Domain for China | EuropeID".europeid.Retrieved2017-04-22.
- ^"Legal Info - Internet Domains".nic.ch.Retrieved2017-04-22.
- ^From the onlineHistorical Dictionary of Switzerland
- ^"Launch of the new.swiss internet domain".dot.swiss.2015-09-09.Retrieved8 January2016.
- ^"Facts".dot.swiss.Retrieved8 January2016.
External links[edit]
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