Country code top-level domains with commercial licenses

Country code top-level domains with commercial licensesareInternetcountry code top-level domainthat 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,Tuvaluand theFederated States of Micronesia,small island-states in the Pacific, have partnered withVeriSignand FSM Telecommunications respectively, to sell domain name registrations using theTVandfmTLDs 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

• ac(Ascension Island) is sometimes used to stand for "Access Connection" or "Access Card". It is occasionally used by universities to stand for "academic", for example by theUniversity of Kurdistan – Hawler(ukh.ac) orRalston College(ralston.ac),
• ad(Andorra) has recently been increasingly used by advertising agencies orclassified advertising.
• ag(Antigua and Barbuda) is sometimes used for agricultural sites. InGermanyand German-speaking countries, AG (short forAktiengesellschaft) is appended to the name of a stock-based company, similar toInc.inUSA.
• am(Armenia) is often used forAMradio stations, or fordomain hacks.
• as(American Samoa) In Estonia, Denmark and Norway,ASis 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 forcs:Akciová společnost.
• at(Austria) is used for English words ending in "at".
• be(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 asdownloadyoutu.be,a site for the downloading ofYouTubevideos. YouTube site is accessible throughyoutu.bedomain, registered byGoogleitself.
• by(Belarus) is sometimes used in Germany, as "BY" is the official abbreviation of the stateBayern.
• ca(Canada) is occasionally used to create domain hacks likehistori.ca,the web domain ofThe Historica Dominion Institute.This type of use is limited by the.ca domain's Canadian residence requirements.
• cc(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, gracechurch.cc, bible.cc, saintjohns.cc
• cd(Democratic Republic of Congo) is used for CD merchants and file sharing sites.
• ch(Switzerland) is used for a number of church websites.
• ck(Cook Islands) was notably abused inChris Morris'sNathan Barleyby preceding it with ".co" in order to spell out the word "cock" (.co.ck as intrashbat.co.ck).
• co(Colombia) is marketed as commercial, corporation, or company.
• dj(Djibouti) is used for CD merchants anddisc jockies(DJs, as in deejay).
• es(Spain) is used for forming plural words (e.g. in Englishbeach.es).
• fi(Finland) is used as a domain hack byEye-Fi(eye.fi), a maker of memory cards with Wi-Fi capabilities.
• fm(theFederated States of Micronesia) is often used forFMradio stations (and even non-FM stations, such asinternet radiostations).
• gl(Greenland) is often used forGalicianorGalicia-related sites, in waiting for thegaldomain. This TLD is also used by Google's link shortening and analytics serviceGoo.gl.
• gg(Guernsey) is often used by the gaming and gambling industry, particularly in relation to horse racing and online poker. "GG" is popularly used in online video games as an acronym of "good game".
• im(theIsle of Man) is often used byinstant messagingprograms and services.
• in(India) is widely used in the internet industry.
• io(theBritish Indian Ocean Territory). Notable examples are online storage siteDrop.ioand task list site Done.io. Commonly used by tech companies or individuals for its relation toInput/Output.
• is(Iceland) is used as the English verb, "to be" in conjunction with a directory name suffix to complete a linguistically correct sentence (for example, "<noun>.is/<verb>" or "<noun>.is/<adjective>).
• ir(Iran) is used in domain hacks (e.g..has.ir).
• it(Italy) is the third-person neuter pronoun in English and is used for domains such aswin.at.it.
• je(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" ).
• la(Laos) is marketed as suggestingLos AngelesorLatin America.
• li(Liechtenstein) is marketed as meaningLong Island.
• lv(Latvia) is also used to abbreviateLas Vegasor less frequently,love.
• ly(Libya) is also used for words ending withsuffix"ly".
• md(Moldova) is marketed to the medical industry (as in "medical domain"or "medical doctor" ).
• me(Montenegro) was opened in 2008,and has quickly become one of the most used ccTLDs for vanity. It is used worldwide by individuals, and companies offering services, because of the meaning in English and more languages. It is widely used as well in the Middle East for its abbreviation.
• mn(Mongolia) is used to abbreviateMinnesota.
• ms(Montserrat) is also used for someMicrosoft-related projects.
• mu(Mauritius) is used within the music industry.
• ni(Nicaragua) is occasionally adopted by companies fromNorthern Ireland,particularly to distinguish from the more usual.ukwithin all parts of theUnited Kingdom.
• nu(Niue) is marketed as resembling "new" in English and "now" in Scandinavian/Dutch. Also means "nude" in French and Portuguese.
• pr(Puerto Rico) can be used in the meaning of "Public Relations".
• rs(Serbia) is marketed in English words ending with the letters "rs" such asblogge.rs.
• sc(Seychelles) is often used as.Source.
• sh(Saint Helena) is also sometimes used for entities connected to theGermanBundeslandofSchleswig-Holsteinor theSwissCantonofSchaffhausen,or toShanghaiorShenzhenin China. It also sees use among tech circles:.sh is the file extension forShell scripts.
• si(Slovenia) is also used by Hispanic sites as "yes" ( "sí" ). Mexican mayor candidate Jorge Arana, for example, had his web site registered asjorgearana.si(i.e. "Jorge Arana, sí", meaning "Jorge Arana, yes" ).
• sr(Suriname) is marketed in the US as being for "seniors".
• st(São Tomé and Príncipe) is being marketed worldwide as an abbreviation for various things including "street".
• tc(Turks and Caicos Islands) is marketed as "abbreviation of Türkiye Cumhuriyeti".
• tm(Turkmenistan) can be used as "trade mark".
• to(Tonga) is often used as the English word "to", likego.to.Also is marketed as the TLD forTorontoand for the Italian city and province ofTurin(Torino in Italian).
• TV(Tuvalu) is used for the television/entertainment industry purposes. It is also used for local businesses in the province ofTreviso,Italy.
• vc(Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) is sometimes used to abbreviate "Venture Capital" "Vacation Club" or "Virtual Casino".
• vg(British Virgin Islands) is sometimes used to abbreviateVideo games.
• vu(Vanuatu) means "seen" in French as well as an abbreviation for the English language word "view".
• ws(Samoa,earlier Western Samoa) is marketed as.Website.

See also

• Country code top-level domain