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.co

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This article is about the country-code top-level domain. For the second-level domain, see .co (second-level domain).
.co
IntroducedDecember 24, 1991; 32 years ago (1991-12-24)
TLD typeCountry code top-level domain
StatusActive
Registry.CO Internet S.A.S.
Sponsor.CO Internet S.A.S.
Intended useSecond-level domains (widgets.co) and country-code second-level domain names (ccSLDs) are intended for global use:
  • .com.co: Intended for commercial entities
  • .net.co: Intended for network infrastructures, such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
  • .nom.co: Intended for private individuals.[1]
All other third-level .co domains (widgets.org.co, net.co, gov.co), are intended for entities connected with Colombia.
Actual usePopular in Colombia and internationally
Sometimes used in typosquatting due to misspellings of .com domains
Registered domains2,018,450 (2016)[2]
Registration restrictionsNone for .co, .com.co, and .net.co
StructureTop-level registration now permitted.[3]
DocumentsLaunch and Registration Rules (in English)
Registration policies
Dispute policiesUDRP
DNSSECyes
Registry websitewww.go.co (English)
www.cointernet.com.co (Spanish)

.co is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Colombia.

It is administered by .CO Internet S.A.S.,[4] a subsidiary of Neustar since 2014. As of July 10, 2010, there were no registration restrictions on second-level .co domains; any individual or entity in the world can register a .co domain.

.CO Internet S.A.S. from Bogotá, Colombia, was appointed as the manager for the .co TLD through a public procurement process that took place in early 2009. .CO Internet received the re-delegation approval as the manager of the .co TLD by ICANN on December 9, 2009, and received formal confirmation of the request by the United States Department of Commerce on December 23, 2009.[citation needed]

Google treats .co as a generic top-level domain (gTLD) because "users and website owners frequently see [the domain] as being more generic than country-targeted".[5]

Second-level domain names

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When they took over administration of the .CO domain, .CO Internet S.A.S. implemented new domain policies that were more flexible than the historic ones that had been administered by the University of the Andes. The new policies were adjusted to international best practices and defined in consultation with local and international communities. With the new policies, Colombia would be able to sell second-level domain names to the world, such as widgets.co, where previously only third-level domain-names were available, such as widgets.com.co.

Notable single letter .CO domain names that have been allocated include:

[a.co] Amazon
[b.co] Bestseller.com
[g.co] Google
[m.co] Volvo Car Mobility
[o.co] Overstock.com
[s.co] Snapchat
[t.co] X (formerly Twitter)
[y.co] Y.CO - The Yacht Company

On September 15, 2010, .CO Internet S.A.S. had taken registrations for over 500,000 .CO domain names.[6] As of June 2011, more than 1 million .CO domains had been registered by people in over 200 countries and territories worldwide.[7][failed verification] As of January 2014, that number has grown to over 1.6 million .CO domains registered.[citation needed] As of December 2018, there were 2.2 million.[8]

With respect to search engine optimization, Google confirmed that "it will rank .co domains appropriately if the content is globally targeted".[9]

Summary of policies since 2010

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  • Any person or entity in the world can register .co domain names
  • There are no domicile or burdensome documentation requirements
  • Registration period is between 1 and 5 years, subject to renewal
  • Registrants can easily transfer domain names

.CO domains became available via the following timeline:

  • April 1, 2010 – April 20, 2010: Sunrise A allowed registered local trademarks to apply for exact match domains.
  • April 26, 2010 – June 10, 2010: Sunrise B allowed trademarks of national effect to apply for exact match domains.
  • June 21, 2010 – July 13, 2010: Landrush allowed anyone to apply for domain names of high commercial value.
  • July 20, 2010: .co domains became generally available.[10]

Third-level domain registrations

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The third-level domain registrations closely mirror the "traditional" IANA .com/.net/.org/.gov/.edu/.mil-hierarchy, with the addition of a national equivalent of .name. Different from registrations directly under .co, which are used to signal globally-relevant interests, third-level domains are used to signal locally-relevant business, organizations, academic institutions, and government.[citation needed]

  • com.co – commercial
  • org.co – organizations
  • edu.co – educational
  • gov.co – government
  • net.co – network infrastructure
  • mil.co – military
  • nom.co – private person

History

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IANA delegates ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes as country code top-level domains, and on December 24, 1991, the .co top-level domain was assigned to Colombia and delegated to the Universidad de los Andes.[11]

In 2001, the university began to consider the possibility of marketing the domain as an alternative to the generic top-level domains. The government of Colombia objected on the basis that the university, a private entity, did not have regulatory oversight of the TLD and the Minister of Communications, Angela Montoya Holguín, wrote to them requesting that they not continue. In turn the university wrote to ICANN, rejecting the government's objections and stating their intention to appoint a subcontractor to handle the commercialization of the domain.[11]

At a meeting on December 11, 2001, Holguín asked the Consultative Chamber and Civil Service of the Council of State to consider three issues:[12]

  1. whether the .co domain is a public resource
  2. if the domain is public resource, whether it is intrinsically-linked with telecommunications
  3. if the domain is linked with telecommunications, who should profit from its commercialization

In relation to these three issues, the meeting concluded that:[12]

  1. the .co domain, having been assigned to Colombia, is of public interest
  2. the administration of the domain is intrinsically-related to telecommunications, and hence falls under the purview of the Ministry of Communications, with the exception of those functions assigned to the ICFES by the Ministry of National Education
  3. unless the Congress of Colombia adopts an act allowing tax to be collected in relation to the registration of domain names, no amount can be charged for such a service

In response to the Council of State meeting, the university wrote to ICANN on 12 February 2002 stating that it had abandoned plans to commercialize the domain, and that as it could "no longer bear the administrative and operational responsibilities" it wished to discontinue its responsibility for operating the domain.[11]

Finally, with the enactment of Law 1065 of 2006, the Ministry of Communications of Colombia initiated a public consultation process involving local and international participants, including members of the ICANN community, with the objective of defining the future of the .CO TLD. As a result of that process, through Resolution 001652 of 2008, the Ministry approved new policies that would govern the administration of the .CO TLD.[13] A public procurement process began which resulted in the award of the administration contract to .CO Internet SAS. Finally, on February 7, 2010, the administration of the TLD was transitioned from the University of Andes to .CO Internet SAS, under the regulatory and policy supervision of the Ministry of Communications of Colombia.[14][15]

On July 20, 2010, second level .co domains became available to the rest of the world on a first-come, first-served basis. In 2014, .CO Internet S.A.S was acquired by Neustar for US$109 Million, and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Neustar.[16] It is responsible for the promotion, administration, and technical operation of the .co TLD.[6]

In 2020, GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) acquired Neustar Registry and became the operator of .CO domain names.[17][18][19]

Accredited registrars

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Only accredited registrars are able to sell .co domain names directly; other registrars selling .co domain names are acting as resellers. The list of accredited registrars is available on the .CO Internet website,[20] and as of October 2011 there are 20 accredited registrars. Some of the 20 registrars operate under multiple brands.[21]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "About .co Domain Names - Domains - GoDaddy Help". Archived from the original on April 12, 2013. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
  2. ^ Cira.ca (Canadian ccTLD registry 2016 report - top 20 ccTLDs
  3. ^ "Preguntas Frecuentes" [Frequently Asked Questions] (in Spanish). .CO Internet SAS. Archived from the original on August 11, 2022.
  4. ^ "Delegation Record for .CO / .co Domain Delegation Data". Root Database, Root Zone Management, Domain Names. IANA. August 1, 2023 [registration date December 24, 1991]. Archived from the original on May 12, 2023. Retrieved February 6, 2011.
  5. ^ "Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites". Archived from the original on October 5, 2019. Retrieved October 5, 2019.
  6. ^ a b ".CO Domain Hits 500,000 Registrations Milestone". .CO newsroom. Miami, FL. September 15, 2010. Retrieved September 20, 2023.
  7. ^ "GO.CO | Official Website for the .CO domain |Learn About .CO". GO.CO. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
  8. ^ "GO.CO | Official Website for the .CO domain | Learn About .CO | Company". GO.CO. Registry Services, LLC. Archived from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved September 20, 2023.
  9. ^ Kobie, Nicole (July 10, 2010). "Google approves .CO for International Use". PC Pro. Dennis Publishing Limited licensed by Felden. Archived from the original on July 23, 2010. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
  10. ^ Duhaime, Diane (May 21, 2010). "U.S. trademark owners may now apply for registration of .co domain names". Washington, DC (misinterpreted as "Colombia"), USA: Jorden Burt LLP. Archived from the original on December 3, 2022. Retrieved July 16, 2020 – via Lexology, Law Business Research.
  11. ^ a b c "Redelegation of the .co domain representing Colombia to .CO Internet SAS". IANA. ICANN. November 24, 2009. Archived from the original on April 30, 2010. Retrieved June 12, 2010.
  12. ^ a b Salazar, César Hoyos; Church, Ricardo H. Monroy; Arce, Flavio Augusto Rodriguez; Jaramillo, Augusto Trejos; Reyes, Elizabeth Castro; Flórez, Francisco (December 11, 2001) [documents created and posted on December 18, 2002, except that the English PDF has that as its modify date and November 25, 2002 as its create date]. Written at Bogota, D.C., Colombia. "Radicación número 1.376, Referencia: INTERNET Nombres de dominio. ¿El dominio ".co" tiene carácter público? ¿Tiene competencia el Estado colombiano para regularlo?" [Radication number 1.376. Reference: INTERNET Domain names. Does the domain ".co" have a public nature? Does the Colombian State have the authority to regulate it?]. Workshop on Member States' Experiences with ccTLDs. Geneva: Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T), International Telecommunication Union (published March 3–4, 2003). ccTLD-011. Archived from the original on October 13, 2022. The original document is in Spanish, but there is an official English translation available. The translator is not specified.
  13. ^ "Restricted Domain Names List" (PDF). GO.CO. Registry Services, LLC. March 16, 2010. Pursuant to Article 3.4 of Resolution 001652, 2008, the Administrator of the .CO ccTLD submitted before the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications during the Domain Names Policy Advisory Committee meeting held on November 9, 2009, a preliminary restricted domain names list. [...] the "Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications" (MINTIC for its acronym in Spanish) approved the following restricted domain name list
  14. ^ "Plan de acción: Proceso de selección operador de registro dominio .co" (PDF). Dominio .CO. Bogotá, Colombia: Ministerio de Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (MinTIC). November 5, 2019 [uploaded November 6, 2019].
  15. ^ "Plan de acción: Proceso de selección dominio .co" (PDF). Ministerio de Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (MinTIC). Bogotá, Colombia. May 21, 2019 [uploaded May 22, 2019].
  16. ^ Murphy, Kevin (March 20, 2014). "Neustar pays $109 million for .CO Internet". Domain Incite. Archived from the original on April 15, 2015. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
  17. ^ "GoDaddy completes Neustar Registry acquisition". Domain Name Wire. August 4, 2020. Retrieved October 15, 2024.
  18. ^ "GoDaddy Acquires Domain Registry of .US, .Biz, .In and .Co". Search Engine Journal. April 8, 2020. Retrieved October 15, 2024.
  19. ^ "GoDaddy Acquires Neustar's Registry Business". GoDaddy Operating Company, LLC. April 6, 2020. Retrieved October 15, 2024.
  20. ^ "Accredited Registrars". GO.CO. Registry Services, LLC. Retrieved September 20, 2023.
  21. ^ ".CO Accredited Registrars (.CO Partners)". .CO Internet S.A.S., Bogotá, Colombia. Retrieved August 16, 2015. As a premium domain name space, .CO is available through a select list of Accredited Registrar partners and their resellers
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