Know what country your extension relates to

Most businesses don't know what their extensions mean

Organisations generally go for internet extensions that match their activities, their names, or the way they plan to use their domains. And, having chosen a suitable-sounding extension, they often don't think too much about its background. Most internet users don't understand what the extensions mean either. They don't realise, for example, that a TLD with no more than 2 characters is a country-code extension. Take the domain name used by payment service provider Tikkie: Tikkie.me. Few people know that the name's extension, .me, is Montenegro's country-code domain. Similarly, people don't generally twig that the bit.ly URL shortener uses Libya’s national TLD. In practice, that doesn't tend to matter much, because the domain name extension system is so well organised at the international level. Extensions don't just disappear overnight. Nevertheless, setting up a business that depends on the country-code extension for an unfamiliar place is not without risk. Some of the issues that can arise are explained below.

1. If a country ceases to exist, so does its TLD

The first of the 5 risks we've identified is both the least likely to materialise and the most serious when it does happen. Since 1998, just 5 ccTLDs have fallen out of use when the countries they related to ceased to exist: Zaire (.zr), Portuguese Timor (.tp), the Soviet Union (.su), the Netherlands Antilles (.an) and Yugoslavia (.yu). However, 2 more ccTLDs are currently threatened by a similar fate, and both of them are fairly large. First, there's the .io TLD, which relates to the Chagos Islands. Chagos is a British-controlled archipelago in the Indian Ocean – hence 'io', for (British) Indian Ocean (Territory). In a few years' time, the islands will become part of Mauritius, and the British Indian Ocean Territory will disappear from the map. Potentially taking with it the .io TLD. That could be problematic for the tech, gaming and crypto industry, where .io is popular because the abbreviation 'IO' also stands for 'input/output'. The .io domain has nearly 300,000 registered domain names, whose operators will have to switch if the TLD is withdrawn from use. The second threatened TLD is another popular one: .tv. Although many people assume that .tv is a gTLD for the TV industry, it's actually the ccTLD for Tuvalu, a low-altitude island nation threatened by climate change. Experts believe that rising sea levels will submerge most of Tuvalu within 30 years.

2. Choice of TLD can affect search result ranking

Google's search results are ranked partly on a geographical basis: sites with country-code extensions are preferentially shown to users in the corresponding countries. So a user in the Netherlands sees lots of .nl sites. However, a few ccTLDs that are used mainly for generic purposes are treated as generic domains and are therefore also seen by users outside the countries the domains relate to. Examples of these are the .me (Montenegro), .co (Colombia) and .ai (Anguilla) domains. However, Google only does that with ccTLDs that are widely used as gTLDs. If a ccTLD's operator or the government of the country it relates to introduces a new policy for the domain, the way Google indexes websites that use the extension can also change. It therefore makes sense to ask Google how an extension is handled before using it for your site.

3. Not all operators can cope with a boom

Sometimes, there's a sudden surge in demand for a particular extension. We've seen that recently with .ai, for example. In the last 2 years, the extension for the Caribbean island of Anguilla (.ai) has become very popular with tech businesses active in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Until not long ago, however, .ai was run by a single individual. Unsurprisingly, a rush of more than 300,000 registrations was more than the operator could cope with, despite their expertise. If the lone operator took a holiday, for example, registrants could face significant problems. It was recently announced, therefore, that the administration of .ai was being handed over to US RSP Identity Digital, a company that already looks after 28 million domain names.

4. Potential legal consequences

One thing about country-code domains that people tend to forget is that the laws governing a domain are usually decided by the country it relates to. Where .ai was concerned, everything was fine, because the domain adopted ICANN's Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy. However, it's often only when a dispute or another issue arises that a registrant realises what the legal situation is. Government intervention can also lead to difficulties. In 2009, for example, the Chinese authorities suddenly asked all 15 million .cn registrants to demonstrate that they were licensed to do business in China. Faced by a challenging deadline for producing evidence, millions of registrants ended up losing their domain names.

5. Ownership

Back when the domain name market was in its infancy, various enterprising individuals approached the authorities in countries without active country-code domains, and bought the right to operate those countries' domains. The domains in question were then mainly marketed elsewhere. For instance, the .nu extension is popular in the Netherlands because 'nu' means 'now' in Dutch. So Dutch businesses can create domain names that mean things like 'buy now' or 'apply now'. Not many of the registrants stop to think that their extension is actually the domain for the Pacific island of Niue. It's now 20 years since the Niue authorities licensed a commercial operator to run the .nu domain. However, for the last few years, the company in question has been locked in a dispute with the island's residents, who want 'their' domain back. The outcome of that dispute could have major repercussions for .nu registrants.

Commercial risks

The hazards outlined above potentially have far-reaching implications for anyone whose business is based on an online presence tied to an affected extension. Those implications include lost online visibility and consequently lost revenue. Fortunately, there are ways of managing the risks. Here's our advice:

• Register multiple extensions.

  That way, you spread the risk.

• Know your extension, and keep an eye on developments.

  Make sure you're aware of what's happening with your domain name extension, and react promptly whenever the need arises.

• Build a brand identity that doesn't depend entirely on your extension.

  If you've got a strong brand identity, customers can find you more easily if your domain name changes.

Conclusion

A top-level domain's status has considerable implications for anyone using that domain for business. However, by taking sensible precautions, an enterprise can mitigate the risks and safeguard its online presence. It's therefore important to be aware of the pitfalls and to adopt a proactive approach to risk management.