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Why One Tiny Island is Still a Domain Name Giant (zdnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

The small Pacific island Tokelau is still the most populated country-level domain in the world, outnumbering the 20.8 million domains that use China's .cn. From a report: UK registry for .uk domains has published its latest topsy-turvy map of the world, with land mass weighted according to the number of registered country-level domains. As it was two years ago, Tokelau remains the world's 'largest' country, thanks to its free registration policy; the number of .tk domains reaching nine million in 2012 and from there tripling to 31 million by 2016. Today, the number of .tk domains stands at 21.2 million, but it still remains the largest, just ahead of China. The number of domains with China's .cn has increased over the past two years from 17 million to 20.8 million, making it the second most widely used country-level domain in the world.

6 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. Yep advertising. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Part of the free deal is you need a minimum of of unique hits a month (on which they serve an ad over), or you lose the URL.

  2. Why by manu0601 · · Score: 2

    After reading the article (which just repeats legend from the map), I still does not know why .tk ccTLD is successful.

    1. Re:Why by jemmyw · · Score: 4, Informative

      because you can get a .tk domain for free. So any time I want a testing domain for a site I'm working on I'll just grab a free .tk domain for awhile.

    2. Re:Why by supremebob · · Score: 4, Informative

      I think that .tk was the first country to offer free domains, which is why they had a head start. If I remember right, they reserved a bunch of "premium" domains (like cars.tk or movies.tk) that the country tried to sell for higher dollar amounts. That money seems to have gone for funding internet access and to help keep their island above sea level. I don't think that the latter is it working out too well for them.

  3. www.tcl.tk by nuntius · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is the page you are looking for.

    http://www.tcl.tk/

  4. Re:Pointless by tepples · · Score: 2

    Niue's TLD .nu became more popular in Scandinavia, as nu means "now" in Swedish, and it was open to individuals before Sweden's own .se was. At one time, many erotic sites for the francophone market were in .nu, as nu means "naked" in French.