Country code top-level domain

"ccTLD" and "cc TLD" redirect here. For the TLD for the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, see .cc.

For a list of TLDs, see List of Internet top-level domains.

A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all two-letter top-level domains are ccTLDs. In 2018, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) began implementing internationalized country code top-level domains, consisting of language-native characters when displayed in an end-user application. Creation and delegation of ccTLDs is described in RFC 1591, corresponding to ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes. While gTLDs have to obey international regulations, ccTLDs are subjected to requirements that are determined by each country's domain name regulation corporation. With over 150 million domain name registrations as of 2022, ccTLDs make up about 40% of the total domain name industry. Country code extension applications began in 1985. The registered country code extensions in that year included .us (United States), .uk (United Kingdom) and .il (Israel). The registered country code extensions in 1986 included .au (Australia), .de (Germany), .fi (Finland), .fr (France), .is (Iceland), .jp (Japan), .kr (South Korea), .nl (Netherlands) and .se (Sweden). The registered country code extensions in 1987 included .nz (New Zealand), .ch (Switzerland) and .ca (Canada). The registered country code extensions in 1988 included .ie (Ireland) .it (Italy), .es (Spain) and .pt (Portugal). The registered country code extensions in 1989 included .in (India) and .yu (Yugoslavia). In the 1990s, .cn (People's Republic of China) and .ru (Russian Federation) were first registered. There are 308 delegated ccTLDs. The .cn, .tk, .de, .uk, .nl and .ru ccTLDs contain the highest number of domains. The top ten ccTLDs account for more than five-eighths of registered ccTLD domains. There were about 153 million ccTLD domains registered at the end of March 2022.

Delegation and management

IANA is responsible for determining an appropriate trustee for each ccTLD. Administration and control are then delegated to that trustee, which is responsible for the policies and operation of the domain. The current delegation can be determined from IANA's list of ccTLDs. Individual ccTLDs may have varying requirements and fees for registering subdomains. There may be a local-presence requirement (for instance, citizenship or other connection to the ccTLD), as, for example, the American (us), Japanese (jp), Canadian (ca), French (fr) and German (de) domains, or registration may be open.

History

The first registered ccTLD was .us, which was registered in 1985. Later ccTLDs registered in that year included .uk and .il. Then, .au, .de, .fi, .fr, .is, .jp, .kr, .nl and .se were also registered in 1986. In 1987, .nz, .ch, .my and .ca were registered. Later on, in 1988, .ie, .it, .es and .pt were also registered.

Lists

As of 20 May 2017, there were 255 country-code top-level domains, purely in the Latin alphabet, using two-character codes. The number was 316 as of June 2020, with the addition of internationalized domains.

Latin Character ccTLDs

Table columns – legend

Name	DNS name of the two-letter country-code top-level domain. They follow ISO 3166-1 alpha-2, with some exceptions such as ".ac" for Ascension Island, ".eu" for the European Union, or ".uk" for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland instead of ".gb". ISO codes bv, bl, mf, sj, gb, and um are not used for country code top-level domains.
Entity	Country, dependency, or region
Explanation	English name of the country. These are usually domains that arise from native name of the country (e.g. .de for Deutschland, German name for Germany).
Notes	General remarks
Registry	Domain name registry operator, sometimes called a network information center (NIC)
IDN	Support for internationalized domain names (IDN)
DNSSEC	Presence of DS records for Domain Name System Security Extensions
SLD	Second level domain; that is, whether names may be registered directly under the TLD
IPv6	Registry fully supports IPv6 access

Overview of Latin-character country-code TLDs

Name	Entity	Explanation (language of origin, if different from English)	Notes	Registry	IDN	DNSSEC	SLD	IPv6	Introduction Date
.ac	Ascension Island (United Kingdom)	Ascension Island	In ISO 3166-1, Ascension Island falls under Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha's code SH. AC is an exceptionally reserved ISO 3166-1 code. Commonly used for academic websites, such as universities. However, .ac is not to be confused with the official academic domains used by several countries such as the United Kingdom (.ac.uk), India (.ac.in) or Indonesia (.ac.id). Also used in the accounting, consulting, and air-conditioning industries.	Ascension Island Network Information Centre (run by Internet Computer Bureau)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	19 December 1997
.ad	Andorra	Andorra	Local trademark, trade name or citizenship required.	Nic.ad	No	Yes	Yes		9 January 1996
.ae	United Arab Emirates	United Arab Emirates		.aeDA	No	No	Yes		1 December 1992
.af	Afghanistan	Afghanistan			No	Yes	Yes		16 October 1997
.ag	Antigua and Barbuda	Antigua and Barbuda	Also unofficially used by German businesses (where AG is an abbreviation of Aktiengesellschaft).		No	Yes	Yes		3 September 1991
.ai	Anguilla (United Kingdom)	Anguilla	Also unofficially used by tech companies specializing in AI (Artificial Intelligence).		No	Yes	Yes		16 February 1995
.al	Albania	Albania	Citizenship no longer required.		No	No	Yes		21 April 1992
.am	Armenia	Armenia	Also unofficially used by AM radio stations, podcasts or related business.		No	Yes	Yes	Yes	26 August 1994
.ao	Angola	Angola			No	No	?		15 November 1995
.aq	Antarctica	Antarctique (French)	Defined by the Antarctic Treaty as everything south of latitude 60°S. AQ domain names are available to government organizations who are signatories to the Antarctic Treaty and to other registrants who have a physical presence in Antarctica. Domain names can be registered and renewed free of charge.		?	No	Yes	?	26 February 1992
.ar	Argentina	Argentina		nic.ar	Spanish	Yes	Yes	Yes	23 September 1987
.as	American Samoa (United States)	American Samoa	In some countries, like Norway and Denmark, "AS" or "A/S" is used as an abbreviation for stock-based or limited companies. Such companies will often make use of the domain. Also unofficially used by the Principality of Asturias, Spain.		Yes	No	Yes		12 June 1997
.at	Austria	Austria		Nic.at	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	20 January 1988
.au	Australia	Australia	Restrictions apply. In general, registrants must have an "Australian presence", and can be registered anywhere between 1 and 5 years. Includes Ashmore and Cartier Islands and Coral Sea Islands. Direct second-level domain registration (marketed as ".au Direct") has been made available commencing 24 March 2022.	auDA	No	Yes	Yes (*From 24 Mar 2022)	Yes	5 March 1986
.aw	Aruba (Kingdom of the Netherlands)	Aruba, West Indies	Restricted to registered Aruban companies, organisations and citizens.		No	Yes	Yes		20 February 1996
.ax	Åland (Finland)	.al and .ad already allocated			No	Yes	Yes		21 June 2006
.az	Azerbaijan	Azerbaijan	Only for Residents. Has no WHOIS-Server.		No	Yes	Yes	Yes	25 August 1993
.ba	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bosnia and Herzegovina		University of Sarajevo - University tele-informatic Centre https://www.utic.unsa.ba https://www.nic.ba	No	No	Yes		14 August 1996
.bb	Barbados	Barbados			No	No	Yes		3 September 1991
.bd	Bangladesh	Bangladesh	For individuals, registrant must have a valid NID. For companies, registrant must have company or trademark registered in Bangladesh.		Yes	No	Yes		20 May 1999
.be	Belgium	Belgium	Used for YouTube-related domains. Also unofficially used in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland.	DNS Belgium	Latin	Yes	Yes	Yes	5 August 1988 (added to root zone)
.bf	Burkina Faso	Burkina Faso			No	No	Yes		29 March 1993
.bg	Bulgaria	Bulgaria	See also .бг (.bg in Cyrillic) for IDN ccTLD.		Yes	Yes	Yes		3 January 1995
.bh	Bahrain	Bahrain			No	Yes	Yes		1 February 1994
.bi	Burundi	Burundi			No	No	Yes		21 October 1996
.bj	Benin	.be, .bn, and .bi already allocated			No	No	Yes		18 January 1996
.bm	Bermuda (United Kingdom)	Bermuda	Local corporate registration required.		No	Yes	Yes		March 1993
.bn	Brunei	Brunei			No	No	No		3 June 1994
.bo	Bolivia	Bolivia			No	No	Yes		26 February 1991
.bq	Caribbean Netherlands (Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius)	.be and .bs already allocated							20 February 2010
.br	Brazil	Brasil (Portuguese)	Restricted. Registration is done under several categories (i.e.: .edu.br for higher education institutions, .gov.br for government agencies, etc.).		Portuguese	Yes	No		18 April 1989
.bs	Bahamas	Bahamas			No	No	Yes		3 September 1991
.bt	Bhutan	Bhutan	Must have local presence in Bhutan, and valid trade license.		No	Yes	No		16 July 1997
.bw	Botswana	Botswana	May also be used for the Province of Walloon Brabant, Wallonia, Belgium.		No	No	Yes		19 March 1993
.by	Belarus	Byelorussia (Russian)	Also unofficially used to denote Bayern (Bavaria), Germany.		No	Yes	Yes		10 May 1994
.bz	Belize	Belize	Also unofficially used in the province of Bozen (or South Tyrol, see .st).		No	Yes	Yes		3 September 1991
.ca	Canada	Canada	Subject to Canadian Presence Requirements. Also unofficially used by some websites in the U.S. state of California.	CIRA	French	Yes	Yes	Yes	14 May 1987
.cc	Cocos (Keeling) Islands	Cocos Islands	Australian territory: not to be confused with Cocos Island in Guam. Currently marketed as global domain, registration allowed worldwide, local presence not required; the domain is currently operated by eNIC, a VeriSign company.		Yes	Yes	Yes		13 October 1997
.cd	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Congo, Democratic Republic	Also unofficially used for Compact disc-related domains.		No	No	Yes		20 August 1997
.cf	Central African Republic	Central African Republic	Was previously used as a free domain service to the public	SOCATEL	Yes	No	Yes		24 April 1996
.cg	Republic of the Congo	Congo			No	No	Yes		14 January 1997
.ch	Switzerland	Confoederatio Helvetica (Latin)		SWITCH	Yes	Yes	Yes		20 May 1987
.ci	Ivory Coast	Côte d'Ivoire (French)			No	No	Yes		14 February 1995
.ck	Cook Islands	Cook Islands			No	No	Yes		8 August 1995
.cl	Chile	Chile		NIC Chile	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	15 December 1987
.cm	Cameroon	Cameroon	A local entity or company in Cameroon is required to register a domain name.		No	No	Yes		29 April 1995
.cn	People's Republic of China	China	A local company in China is required to register a domain name, or for personal registrations a valid Resident Identity Card. See ICP license for more information regarding registrations. Hong Kong and Macau also maintain TLDs. Also unofficially used for Cartoon Network-related domains.		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	28 November 1990
.co	Colombia	Colombia	Marketed as a global domain. Anyone can register.		No	Yes	Yes		24 December 1991
.cr	Costa Rica	Costa Rica			No	Yes	Yes		10 September 1990
.cu	Cuba	Cuba			No	No	Yes		3 June 1992
.cv	Cape Verde	Cape Verde	Also unofficially used for curriculum vitae-related domains.		No	No	Yes		21 October 1996
.cw	Curaçao (Kingdom of the Netherlands)	Curaçao, West Indies				No	?		20 December 2010
.cx	Christmas Island	Christmas, Xmas	Made infamous from Goatse.cx.		No	Yes	Yes		24 April 1997
.cy	Cyprus	Cyprus			No	Yes	Yes		26 July 1994
.cz	Czech Republic	Czechia			No	Yes	Yes		13 January 1993
.de	Germany	Deutschland (German)	German postal address for administrative contact (admin-c) required. Proxy registrations are allowed.	DENIC	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	5 November 1986
.dj	Djibouti	Djibouti	Also unofficially used by disc jockeys.		No	No	Yes		22 May 1996
.dk	Denmark	Danmark (Danish)		Punktum DK	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	14 July 1987
.dm	Dominica	Dominica			No	No	Yes		3 September 1991
.do	Dominican Republic	Dominican			No	No	Yes		25 August 1991
.dz	Algeria	El Djazair / Dzayer (Arabic)			No	Yes	Yes		3 January 1994
.ec	Ecuador	Ecuador	In Japan, "EC" is used as an acronym for "electronic commerce". Because of that, it's used unofficially by companies dedicated to provide online stores like BASE, a company that has two domains related to e-commerce: "base.in" and "official.ec".	Nic.ec	No	No	Yes		1 February 1991
.ee	Estonia	Eesti (Estonian)			Yes	Yes	Yes		3 June 1992
.eg	Egypt	Egypt			No	No	Yes		30 November 1990
.eh	Western Sahara	Español Sahara (Spanish)	Unassigned.		No	No	No
.er	Eritrea	Eritrea				No	Yes		24 September 1996
.es	Spain	España (Spanish)		Red.es	Yes	Yes	Yes		14 April 1988
.et	Ethiopia	Ethiopia			No	No	No		15 October 1995
.eu	European Union	European Union	EU is an exceptionally reserved ISO 3166-1 code. Restricted to legal and natural persons in European Union member states. Previously unofficially used for sites in the Basque language, but now .eus is in official use.	EURid	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	28 April 2005
.fi	Finland	Finland	Registration allowed worldwide, local presence not required.	Traficom	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	17 December 1986
.fj	Fiji	Fiji			No	No	Yes		3 June 1992
.fk	Falkland Islands (United Kingdom)	Falkland			No	No	No		26 March 1997
.fm	Federated States of Micronesia	Federated States of Micronesia	Also unofficially used by FM radio stations, podcasts or related business.		Yes	Yes	Yes		19 April 1995
.fo	Faroe Islands (Kingdom of Denmark)	Føroyar (Faroese)		FO Council	No	Yes	Yes		14 May 1993
.fr	France	France	Restricted to individuals and companies in the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.	AFNIC	Yes	Yes	Yes		2 September 1986
.ga	Gabon	Gabon	Must have presence in Gabon or justify any other direct or indirect link with Gabon. Geographical names and names associated with public/government entities prohibited. Was previously used as a free domain service to the public	ANINF	Yes	No	Yes		12 December 1994
.gd	Grenada	Grenada			No	Yes	Yes		3 June 1992
.ge	Georgia	Georgia	Available for registration for residents of Georgia (unlimited) or for foreign companies via representation of any local legal person (one domain name per registrant).		No	No	Yes		2 December 1992
.gf	French Guiana (France)	Guyane Française (French)			No	No			25 July 1996
.gg	Guernsey	.gu, .gs, and .gy already allocated	Also unofficially used by video game-related websites (see GG (gaming)).	Island Networks Ltd.	Yes	Yes	Yes		7 August 1996
.gh	Ghana	Ghana			No	No	No		19 January 1995
.gi	Gibraltar (United Kingdom)	Gibraltar			No	Yes	Yes		5 December 1995
.gl	Greenland (Kingdom of Denmark)	Greenland	Previously also unofficially used in Galicia, Spain, but .gal has now been approved for such use and was implemented in mid-2014.		No	Yes	Yes		8 April 1994
.gm	The Gambia	Gambia	Domain name should match the domain owner's name or trademarks. Common nouns are blocked.		No	No	Yes		28 March 1997
.gn	Guinea	Guinea	A local contact is required.		No	Yes	No		9 August 1994
.gp	Guadeloupe (France)	Guadeloupe	Still used for Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin.		No	No	Yes		21 October 1996
.gq	Equatorial Guinea	Guinée équatoriale (French)	Was previously used as a free domain service to the public	GETESA	Yes	No			10 July 1997
.gr	Greece	Greece			Yes	Yes	Yes		19 February 1989
.gs	South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (United Kingdom)	South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands			No	Yes	Yes		31 July 1997
.gt	Guatemala	Guatemala			Yes	No	Yes	Yes	14 August 1992
.gu	Guam (United States)	Guam			No	No	No		15 April 1994
.gw	Guinea-Bissau	Gine-Bisaawo (Fula)			No	Yes	Yes		4 February 1997
.gy	Guyana	Guyana			No	Yes	Yes		13 September 1994
.hk	Hong Kong	Hong Kong			Yes	Yes	Yes		3 January 1990
.hm	Heard Island and McDonald Islands	Heard Island and McDonald Islands	Unused for its intended purposes (islands are uninhabited and government sites instead use .aq); registry open to the public.		No	No	Yes		24 July 1997
.hn	Honduras	Honduras			No	Yes	Yes		16 April 1993
.hr	Croatia	Hrvatska (Serbo-Croatian)			No	Yes	Yes		27 February 1993 (in root zone) March 1993
.ht	Haiti	Haiti			Yes	No	Yes		6 March 1997
.hu	Hungary	Hungary	Limited to citizens of the European Union or entities established by law within the territory of the EU.		Yes	Yes	Yes		7 November 1990
.id	Indonesia	Indonesia	Restricted to Indonesian companies (co.id), organisations (or.id), academic (ac.id & sch.id) and citizens (biz.id, my.id & web.id). Second-level domains are becoming available now and opened to general registration on 17 August 2014.	PANDI	Yes	Yes	Yes		27 February 1993
.ie	Ireland	Ireland	In 2002, registration was expanded to include persons or businesses with a "real and substantive" connection with the island of Ireland (including Northern Ireland).		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	27 January 1988
.il	Israel	Israel			Yes	Yes	Yes		24 October 1985
.im	Isle of Man	Isle of Man			No	No	Yes		11 September 1996
.in	India	India	Under INRegistry since April 2005 (except for gov.in, nic.in, mil.in, ac.in, edu.in, and res.in).	NIXI	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	8 May 1989
.io	British Indian Ocean Territory (United Kingdom)	Indian Ocean	Used unofficially by technology companies, startups, and web applications as IO can be an acronym for "input/output" that is useful for domain hacks.	NIC.IO (run by Internet Computer Bureau)	Yes	Yes	Yes		16 September 1997
.iq	Iraq	Iraq			No	Partial	Yes		9 May 1997 (in root zone)
.ir	Iran	Iran		IRNIC	Yes	No	Yes		6 April 1994
.is	Iceland	Ísland (Icelandic)	Also unofficially used and marketed as a domain hack (for example it.is, that.is, etc.).	ISNIC	Yes	Yes	Yes		18 November 1987
.it	Italy	Italy	Restricted to companies and individuals in the European Union.		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	23 December 1987 (in root zone) 1 January 1988 (fully active)
.je	Jersey	Jersey		Island Networks Ltd.	Yes	No	Yes		8 August 1996
.jm	Jamaica	Jamaica			No	No	No		24 September 1991
.jo	Jordan	Jordan				No	Yes		23 November 1994 (in root zone)
.jp	Japan	Japan	Restricted to individuals or companies with a physical address in Japan.	Japan Registry Services	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	5 August 1986
.ke	Kenya	Kenya			No	No	No		29 April 1993
.kg	Kyrgyzstan	Kyrgyzstan			No	Yes	Yes		12 July 1995
.kh	Cambodia	Khmer			No	No	No		20 February 1996
.ki	Kiribati	Kiribati			No	Yes	Yes		19 April 1995
.km	Comoros	Komori (Comorian)			No	No	Yes		8 June 1998
.kn	Saint Kitts and Nevis	Saint Kitts and Nevis			No	No	Yes		3 September 1991
.kp	North Korea	Korea, Democratic People's Republic	Restricted to companies, organizations, or government entities based in North Korea. Despite this, few domains are actually registered because of internet censorship in North Korea.		No	No	No	No	24 September 2007
.kr	South Korea	Korea, Republic			Yes	Yes	Yes		29 September 1986
.kw	Kuwait	Kuwait				Yes	No		26 October 1992
.ky	Cayman Islands (United Kingdom)	.ci and .cy already allocated			No	Yes	Yes		3 May 1995
.kz	Kazakhstan	Kazakhstan	"A prerequisite for server hardware is its physical location on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan."	KAZNIC	Yes	No	Yes		19 September 1994
.la	Laos	Laos	Currently being marketed as the unofficial domain for Los Angeles.			Yes	Yes		14 May 1996
.lb	Lebanon	Lebanon	Restricted to registration with companies in Lebanon.			Yes	No		25 August 1993
.lc	Saint Lucia	Saint Lucia				Yes	Yes		3 September 1991
.li	Liechtenstein	Liechtenstein	Also unofficially used by entities on Long Island, New York or people with the last name Li. In Russian, li can be used to create domain names that mean a verb with a past tense plural ending li .	SWITCH	Yes	Yes	Yes		26 February 1993
.lk	Sri Lanka	Sri Lanka			Yes	Yes	Yes		15 June 1990
.lr	Liberia	Liberia				Partial	No		9 April 1997
.ls	Lesotho	Lesotho				No	No		13 January 1993
.lt	Lithuania	Lithuania			Yes	Yes	Yes		3 June 1992
.lu	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	Also unofficially used in Lucerne, Switzerland.		Yes	Yes	Yes		27 January 1995
.lv	Latvia	Latvia		IMCS UL	Yes	Yes	Yes		29 April 1993
.ly	Libya	Libya	Used unofficially as a domain hack for words ending in -ly.			Yes	Yes		23 April 1997
.ma	Morocco	Maroc (French)				Partial	Yes		26 November 1993
.mc	Monaco	Monaco	Only for companies with a trademark registered in Monaco.			Yes	Yes		20 January 1995
.md	Moldova	Moldova	Restricted to individuals or companies with a physical address in Moldova.			Yes	Yes		24 March 1994
.me	Montenegro	Montenegro	Also unofficially used and marketed as a domain hack (for example love.me, meet.me, etc.).			Yes	Yes		24 September 2007
.mg	Madagascar	Madagascar	Restricted to registration with companies in Madagascar.	NIC-MG		No	Yes		25 July 1995
.mh	Marshall Islands	Marshall	Inactive.			No			16 August 1996
.mk	North Macedonia	Makedonija (Macedonian)	Restricted to individuals and companies in the European Union.			No	Yes		23 September 1993
.ml	Mali	Mali	Was previously used as a free domain service to the public	AGETIC	Yes	No	Yes		29 September 1993
.mm	Myanmar	Myanmar				No	No		4 February 1997
.mn	Mongolia	Mongolia	The second-level domains .gov.mn, .org.mn, and .edu.mn are reserved for special use. See .mn for more information.			Yes	Yes		2 March 1995
.mo	Macau	Macao	Registrants must have a registered business in Macau, with the same name as the domain they wish to register.			No	Yes		17 September 1992
.mp	Northern Mariana Islands (United States)	Marianas Pacific				No	Yes		22 October 1996
.mq	Martinique (France)	Martinique (French)				No	No		28 March 1997
.mr	Mauritania	Mauritania				Yes	Yes		24 April 1996
.ms	Montserrat (United Kingdom)	Montserrat	Also unofficially used for Microsoft-related domains.			No	Yes		6 March 1997
.mt	Malta	Malta				No	No		2 December 1992
.mu	Mauritius	Mauritius				No	Yes		6 October 1995
.mv	Maldives	Maldives				No	Yes		25 September 1996
.mw	Malawi	Malawi				No	Yes		3 January 1997
.mx	Mexico	Mexico				Yes	Yes		1 February 1989
.my	Malaysia	Malaysia	Restricted to registration by individuals or companies in Malaysia.	MYNIC	Yes	Yes	Yes		8 June 1987
.mz	Mozambique	Mozambique				No	No		4 September 1992
.na	Namibia	Namibia				Yes	Yes		8 May 1991
.nc	New Caledonia (France)	New Caledonia	Restricted to companies that have a New Caledonian Business Registration Certificate or individuals living in New Caledonia for at least 6 months.			Yes	Yes		13 October 1993
.ne	Niger	Niger				No	Yes		24 April 1996
.nf	Norfolk Island	Norfolk				Yes	Yes		18 March 1996
.ng	Nigeria	Nigeria				No	Yes		15 March 1995
.ni	Nicaragua	Nicaragua				No	No		13 October 1989
.nl	Netherlands	Netherlands	First active country-code domain outside the US.	Stichting Internet Domeinregistratie Nederland	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	25 April 1986
.no	Norway	Norway	Businesses and professionals must be registered as an approved type of organization in the Brønnøysund Register Centre. Individual applicants must be of age (18 years) and be registered in Folkeregisteret. All applicants must have a Norwegian postal address.	Norid	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	17 March 1987
.np	Nepal	Nepal	All .np domains were free to register for individuals and registered businesses but now it needs some amount to register. Foreign businesses must provide proof of local presence in Nepal.			No	No		25 January 1995
.nr	Nauru	Nauru	Was previously used as a free domain service to the public as co.nr.			No	Yes		30 March 1998
.nu	Niue	Niue	Commonly used by Danish, Dutch, and Swedish websites, as in their respective languages "nu" means "now".	The Swedish Internet Foundation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	20 June 1997
.nz	New Zealand	New Zealand			Māori	Yes	Yes	Yes	19 January 1987
.om	Oman	Oman	Registrant must have company or trademark registered in Oman as well as a local administrative contact.			No	No		11 April 1996
.pa	Panama	Panama	Some use in Pennsylvania.			No	No		25 May 1994
.pe	Peru	Peru	Also unofficially used for Private Equity-related businesses.		Yes	Yes	Yes		25 November 1991
.pf	French Polynesia (France)	Polynésie française (French)	With Clipperton Island.			No	Yes		19 March 1996
.pg	Papua New Guinea	Papua New Guinea				No	No		26 September 1991
.ph	Philippines	Philippines				Yes	Yes		14 September 1990
.pk	Pakistan	Pakistan	Operated by PKNIC since 1992.			No	Yes		3 June 1992
.pl	Poland	Poland			Yes	Yes	Yes		30 July 1990
.pm	Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (France)	Saint Pierre and Miquelon	Restricted to individuals and companies in the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.	AFNIC	Yes	Yes			20 August 1997
.pn	Pitcairn Islands (United Kingdom)	Pitcairn	As a part of a marketing campaign, Lionsgate used the TLD for some (now defunct) sites related to The Hunger Games franchise, presenting it as the "official" country code of the fictional nation of Panem; notable sites included thecapitol.pn and revolution.pn.			No	Yes		10 July 1997
.pr	Puerto Rico (United States)	Puerto Rico				Yes	Yes		27 August 1989
.ps	Palestine	Palestine				No	Yes		22 March 2000
.pt	Portugal	Portugal			Portuguese	Yes	Yes	Yes	30 June 1988
.pw	Palau	Pelew (archaic English spelling)			Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	12 June 1997
.py	Paraguay	Paraguay				No	No		9 September 1991
.qa	Qatar	Qatar				No	No		12 June 1996
.re	Réunion (France)	Réunion	Restricted to individuals and companies in the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.	AFNIC	Yes	Yes	Yes		7 April 1997
.ro	Romania	Romania			Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	26 February 1993
.rs	Serbia	Republika Srbija (Serbo-Croatian)	See also .срб (.srb in Cyrillic). Also unofficially used for Rust (programming language)-related domains.		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	24 September 2007 (in root zone) 10 March 2008 (registrations)
.ru	Russia	Russia	See also .su, still in use, and .рф, for IDN.		No	Yes	Yes	Yes	7 April 1994
.rw	Rwanda	Rwanda		RICTA		No	Yes		21 October 1996
.sa	Saudi Arabia	Saudi Arabia	Registrant must have a registered trademark in Saudi Arabia matching the domain name to register or provide company incorporation documents of a company in Saudi Arabia or for personal registrations a copy of valid ID. A letter on the official letterhead of your organization addressed to SaudiNIC requesting the domain name registration is also required. Local administrative contact required. 2LD registrations rolled out in 2011.		Arabic	Yes	Yes	Yes	17 May 1994
.sb	Solomon Islands	Solomon Islands, British				Yes	No		19 April 1994
.sc	Seychelles	Seychelles	Also unofficially used for Snapchat-related domains.			Yes	Yes		9 May 1997
.sd	Sudan	Sudan				No	Yes		6 March 1997
.se	Sweden	Sverige (Swedish)		The Swedish Internet Foundation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	4 September 1986
.sg	Singapore	Singapore	Also unofficially used in the Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland.			Yes	Yes		19 October 1988
.sh	Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom)	Saint Helena	Also unofficially used by Canton of Schaffhausen in Switzerland	NIC.SH (run by Internet Computer Bureau)	Yes	Yes	Yes		23 September 1997
.si	Slovenia	Slovenia			Yes	Yes	Yes		1 April 1992
.sk	Slovakia	Slovensko (Slovak)	Restricted to individuals and companies in the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.			Yes	Yes	Yes	29 March 1993
.sl	Sierra Leone	Sierra Leone				No	Yes		9 May 1997
.sm	San Marino	San Marino	Domain name must be same as company name or trademark.			No	Yes		16 August 1995
.sn	Senegal	Senegal	Registration allowed for companies only. Individuals are not allowed to register.			Yes	Yes		19 March 1993
.so	Somalia	Somalia	Relaunched on 1 November 2010.	SONIC	No	No	Yes		28 August 1997
.sr	Suriname	Suriname				No	Yes		3 September 1991
.ss	South Sudan	South Sudan		SSNIC		Yes			10 August 2011 (allocated) 2 February 2019 (root zone)
.st	São Tomé and Príncipe	São Tomé	Also unofficially used in South Tyrol (or province of Bozen, see .bz) and Styria.		Yes	No	Yes		7 November 1997
.su	Soviet Union	Soviet Union	Still in use. Also unofficially used by Student Unions.		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	19 September 1990
.sv	El Salvador	Salvador				No	No		4 November 1994
.sx	Sint Maarten (Kingdom of the Netherlands)	.sm, .ma, and .mt already allocated; airport code is SXM.		CIRA		Yes	No		20 December 2010
.sy	Syria	Syria				No	Yes		20 February 1996
.sz	Eswatini	Swaziland	Registration is restricted to Eswatini organizations with Eswatini Trading Licenses.			No	No		19 July 1993
.tc	Turks and Caicos Islands (United Kingdom)	Turks and Caicos	Also marketed in Turkey. The official abbreviation of 'Türkiye Cumhuriyeti' (Republic of Turkey) is TC.			No	Yes		27 January 1997
.td	Chad	Tchad (French)	Available for registration to entities connected with Chad only.			No	Yes		3 November 1997
.tf	French Southern and Antarctic Lands	Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (French)	Seldom used. Restricted to individuals and companies in the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. The domain also sees frequent use for community-run sites related to the video game Team Fortress 2.	AFNIC	Yes	Yes	Yes		26 August 1997
.tg	Togo	Togo				No	Yes		5 September 1996
.th	Thailand	Thai		THNIC	Yes	Yes	Yes		7 September 1988
.tj	Tajikistan	Tajik				No	Yes		11 December 1997
.tk	Tokelau	Tokelau	Was previously used as a free domain service to the public	Dot TK	Yes	No	Yes		7 November 1997
.tl	East Timor	Timor-Leste	Previous code .tp has been deactivated since 2015.			Yes	Yes		23 March 2005
.tm	Turkmenistan	Turkmen			Yes	Yes	Yes		30 May 1997
.tn	Tunisia	Tunisia			Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	17 May 1991
.to	Tonga	Tonga	Often used unofficially for Torrent, Turin (Torino in Italian), Toronto, Tokyo, or Tocantins, and also as a domain hack in Slavic languages (to meaning it).		Yes	No	Yes		18 December 1995
.tr	Turkey	Turkey	.ct.tr and .nc.tr used by Northern Cyprus.		Yes	No	Yes	Yes	17 September 1990
.tt	Trinidad and Tobago	Trinidad and Tobago				Yes	Yes		3 September 1991
.tv	Tuvalu	Tuvalu	Used as an abbreviation of television, the domain is currently operated by GoDaddy; with sponsorship of the Tuvalu government.			Yes	Yes		18 March 1996
.tw	Taiwan	Taiwan	Registration allowed worldwide, local presence not required. In line with ISO 3166-1, IANA's official position is that "TW" is "designated for use to represent Taiwan, Province of China".		Yes	Yes	Yes		31 July 1989
.tz	Tanzania	Tanzania	TLD registrations allowed as of July 2022, no local presence in Tanzania required.	TCRA		Yes	No		14 July 1995
.ua	Ukraine	Ukraina (Russian)	Registrations in TLD are restricted to trademark holders only; SLD registrations are open	Hostmaster Ltd.	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	1 December 1992
.ug	Uganda	Uganda		Uganda Online Ltd.		Yes	Yes		8 March 1995
.uk	United Kingdom	United Kingdom	The ISO 3166-1 code for the United Kingdom is GB (for Great Britain). UK is an exceptionally reserved ISO 3166-1 code. However, the creation of the .uk TLD predates the ISO 3166-1 list of ccTLDs and is the primary TLD for the United Kingdom.	Nominet UK		Yes	Yes	Yes	24 July 1985
.us	United States of America	United States	Registrants must be United States citizens, residents, or organizations, or a foreign entity with a presence in the United States. Formerly commonly used by U.S. State and local governments; see also .gov TLD.	Go Daddy		Yes	Yes		15 February 1985
.uy	Uruguay	Uruguay	2LD rollout began on 10 July 2012.			Yes	Yes		10 September 1990
.uz	Uzbekistan	Uzbekistan		Uzinfocom		Yes	Yes		29 April 1995
.va	Vatican City	Vatican	Limited to the official sites of the Holy See (including those of the Vatican City State).			No	No		11 September 1995 (root zone)
.vc	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Vincent				Partial	Yes		3 September 1991
.ve	Venezuela	Venezuela	Registration is at the third level.			Yes	No		7 March 1991
.vg	British Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)	Virgin Islands				No	Yes		20 February 1997
.vi	United States Virgin Islands (United States)	Virgin Islands				No	Yes		31 August 1995
.vn	Vietnam	Viet Nam (Vietnamese)			Yes	Yes	Yes		14 April 1994
.vu	Vanuatu	Vanuatu				Yes	Yes		10 April 1995
.wf	Wallis and Futuna	Wallis and Futuna	Restricted to individuals and companies in the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.	AFNIC	Yes	Yes	Yes		14 November 1997
.ws	Samoa	Western Samoa	Marketed for use in general websites.		Yes	Yes	Yes		14 July 1995
.ye	Yemen	Yemen				No	No		19 August 1996
.yt	Mayotte	Mayotte	Restricted to individuals and companies in the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Also unofficially used for YouTube-related domains.	AFNIC	Yes	Yes	Yes		17 November 1997
.za	South Africa	Zuid-Afrika (Dutch)	.za derives from the Dutch name of the country, even though Dutch is no longer an official language of South Africa.	ZA Domain Name Authority		Yes	Yes		7 November 1990
.zm	Zambia	Zambia				No	Yes		25 March 1994
.zw	Zimbabwe	Zimbabwe				No	No		6 November 1991

Table Notes

Internationalized ccTLDs

Internationalized country code top-level domains

DNS name	IDN ccTLD	Country/Region	Language	Script	Transliteration	Comments	Other ccTLD	DNSSEC
xn--lgbbat1ad8j	.الجزائر	Algeria	Arabic	Arabic (Arabic)	al-Jazā'ir		.dz	No
xn--y9a3aq	.հայ	Armenia	Armenian	Armenian	hay		.am	Yes
xn--mgbcpq6gpa1a	.البحرين	Bahrain	Arabic	Arabic	al-Baḥrain	Not in use	.bh	Yes
xn--54b7fta0cc	.বাংলা	Bangladesh	Bengali	Bengali	Bangla		.bd	No
xn--90ais	.бел	Belarus	Belarusian	Cyrillic	bel		.by	Yes
xn--90ae	.бг	Bulgaria	Bulgarian	Cyrillic	bg		.bg	Yes
xn--fiqs8s	.中国	China	Chinese	Chinese (Simplified)	Zhōngguó		.cn	Yes
xn--fiqz9s	.中國	China	Chinese	Chinese (Traditional)	Zhōngguó		.cn	Yes
xn--wgbh1c	.مصر	Egypt	Arabic	Arabic (Arabic)	Miṣr / Maṣr		.eg	Yes
xn--e1a4c	.ею	European Union	Bulgarian	Cyrillic	eyu		.eu	Yes
xn--qxa6a	.ευ	European Union	Greek	Greek	ey	In use since 2022	.eu	Yes
xn--node	.გე	Georgia	Georgian	Georgian (Mkhedruli)	GE		.ge	No
xn--qxam	.ελ	Greece	Greek	Greek	el	In use since July 2018	.gr	Yes
xn--j6w193g	.香港	Hong Kong	Chinese	Chinese (Simplified and Traditional)	Hoeng1 gong2 / Xiānggǎng		.hk	Yes
xn--h2brj9c	.भारत	India	Hindi	Devanagari	Bhārat	Became available 27 August 2014	.in	Yes
xn--mgbbh1a71e	.بھارت	India	Urdu	Arabic (Urdu)	Bhārat	Became available 2017	.in	Yes
xn--fpcrj9c3d	.భారత్	India	Telugu	Telugu	Bhārat	Became available 2017	.in	Yes
xn--gecrj9c	.ભારત	India	Gujarati	Gujarati	Bhārat	Became available 2017	.in	Yes
xn--s9brj9c	.ਭਾਰਤ	India	Punjabi	Gurmukhī	Bhārat	Became available 2017	.in	Yes
xn--xkc2dl3a5ee0h	.இந்தியா	India	Tamil	Tamil	Intiyā	Became available 2015	.in	Yes
xn--45brj9c	.ভারত	India	Bengali	Bengali	Bharôt	Became available 2017	.in	Yes
xn--2scrj9c	.ಭಾರತ	India	Kannada	Kannada	Bhārata	Became available 2020	.in	Yes
xn--rvc1e0am3e	.ഭാരതം	India	Malayalam	Malayalam	Bhāratam	Became available 2020	.in	Yes
xn--45br5cyl	.ভাৰত	India	Assamese	Bengali	Bharatam	Became available 2022	.in	Yes
xn--3hcrj9c	.ଭାରତ	India	Oriya	Oriya	Bhārat	Became available 2021	.in	Yes
xn--mgbbh1a	.بارت	India	Kashmiri	Arabic (Kashmiri)	Bārat	Became available 2022	.in	Yes
xn--h2breg3eve	.भारतम्	India	Sanskrit	Devanagari	Bhāratam	Became available 2022	.in	Yes
xn--h2brj9c8c	.भारोत	India	Santali	Devanagari	Bharot	Became available 2022	.in	Yes
xn--mgbgu82a	.ڀارت	India	Sindhi	Arabic (Sindhi)	Bhārat	Became available 2022	.in	Yes
xn--mgba3a4f16a	.ایران	Iran	Persian	Arabic (Persian)	Īrān		.ir	No
xn--mgbtx2b	.عراق	Iraq	Arabic	Arabic (Arabic)	ʿIrāq	Not in use	.iq	No
xn--4dbrk0ce	.ישראל	Israel	Hebrew	Hebrew	Israel	Became available 2022	.il	Yes
xn--mgbayh7gpa	.الاردن	Jordan	Arabic	Arabic (Arabic)	al-Urdun		.jo	No
xn--80ao21a	.қаз	Kazakhstan	Kazakh	Cyrillic (Kazakh)	qaz		.kz	No
xn--q7ce6a	.ລາວ	Laos	Lao	Lao	Lao	Became available 2020	.la	Yes
xn--mix082f	.澳门	Macao	Chinese	Chinese (Simplified)	Ou3 mun4 / Àomén	Not in use	.mo	No
xn--mix891f	.澳門	Macao	Chinese	Chinese (Traditional)	Ou3 mun4 / Àomén	Became available 2020	.mo	No
xn--mgbx4cd0ab	.مليسيا	Malaysia	Malay	Arabic (Jawi)	Malaysīyā		.my	Yes
xn--mgbah1a3hjkrd	.موريتانيا	Mauritania	Arabic	Arabic (Arabic)	Mūrītāniyā		.mr	Yes
xn--l1acc	.мон	Mongolia	Mongolian	Cyrillic (Mongolian)	mon		.mn	Yes
xn--mgbc0a9azcg	.المغرب	Morocco	Arabic	Arabic (Arabic)	al-Maġrib		.ma	No
xn--d1alf	.мкд	North Macedonia	Macedonian	Cyrillic (Macedonian)	mkd		.mk	No
xn--mgb9awbf	.عمان	Oman	Arabic	Arabic (Arabic)	ʿUmān		.om	No
xn--mgbai9azgqp6j	.پاکستان	Pakistan	Urdu	Arabic (Urdu)	Pākistān		.pk	Yes
xn--ygbi2ammx	.فلسطين	Palestinian Authority	Arabic	Arabic (Arabic)	Filasṭīn		.ps	No
xn--wgbl6a	.قطر	Qatar	Arabic	Arabic (Arabic)	Qaṭar		.qa	No
xn--p1ai	.рф	Russia	Russian	Cyrillic (Russian)	rf		.ru	Yes
xn--mgberp4a5d4ar	.السعودية	Saudi Arabia	Arabic	Arabic (Arabic)	as-Suʿūdīya		.sa	Yes
xn--90a3ac	.срб	Serbia	Serbian	Cyrillic (Serbian)	srb		.rs	Yes
xn--yfro4i67o	.新加坡	Singapore	Chinese	Chinese (Simplified and Traditional)	Xīnjiāpō		.sg	Yes
xn--clchc0ea0b2g2a9gcd	.சிங்கப்பூர்	Singapore	Tamil	Tamil	Cinkappūr		.sg	Yes
xn--3e0b707e	.한국	South Korea	Korean	Hangul	Hanguk		.kr	Yes
xn--fzc2c9e2c	.ලංකා	Sri Lanka	Sinhala	Sinhala	Lanka		.lk	No
xn--xkc2al3hye2a	.இலங்கை	Sri Lanka	Tamil	Tamil	Ilaṅkai		.lk	No
xn--mgbpl2fh	.سودان	Sudan	Arabic	Arabic (Arabic)	Sūdān		.sd	No
xn--ogbpf8fl	.سورية	Syria	Arabic	Arabic (Arabic)	Sūriyya		.sy	No
xn--kprw13d	.台湾	Taiwan	Chinese	Chinese (Simplified)	Táiwān		.tw	Yes
xn--kpry57d	.台灣	Taiwan	Chinese	Chinese (Traditional)	Táiwān		.tw	Yes
xn--o3cw4h	.ไทย	Thailand	Thai	Thai	Thai		.th	Yes
xn--pgbs0dh	.تونس	Tunisia	Arabic	Arabic (Arabic)	Tūnis		.tn	Yes
xn--j1amh	.укр	Ukraine	Ukrainian	Cyrillic (Ukrainian)	ukr		.ua	No
xn--mgbaam7a8h	.امارات	United Arab Emirates	Arabic	Arabic (Arabic)	Imārāt		.ae	No
xn--mgb2ddes	.اليمن	Yemen	Arabic	Arabic (Arabic)	al-Yaman	Not delegated	.ye	No

Proposed internationalized ccTLDs

Main article: Proposed top-level domain § Internationalized country code top-level domains

Internationalised domain names have been proposed for Japan and Libya.

Relation to ISO 3166-1

The IANA is not in the business of deciding what is and what is not a country. The selection of the ISO 3166 list as a basis for country code top-level domain names was made with the knowledge that ISO has a procedure for determining which entities should be and should not be on that list.

— Jon Postel, RFC 1591

Unused ISO 3166-1 codes

Almost all current ISO 3166-1 codes have been assigned and do exist in DNS. However, some of these are effectively unused. In particular, the ccTLDs for the Norwegian dependency Bouvet Island (bv) and the designation Svalbard and Jan Mayen (sj) do exist in DNS, but no subdomains have been assigned, and it is Norid policy to not assign any at present. Two French territories—bl (Saint Barthélemy) and mf (Saint Martin)—still await local assignment by France's government. The code eh, although eligible as ccTLD for Western Sahara, has never been assigned and does not exist in DNS. Only one subdomain is still registered in gb (ISO 3166-1 for the United Kingdom), and no new registrations are being accepted for it. Sites in the United Kingdom generally useuk (see below). The former .um ccTLD for the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands was removed in April 2008. Under RFC 1591 rules, .um is eligible as a ccTLD on request by the relevant governmental agency and local Internet user community.

ASCII ccTLDs not in ISO 3166-1

Several ASCII ccTLDs are in use that are not ISO 3166-1 two-letter codes. Some of these codes were specified in older versions of the ISO list.

• uk (United Kingdom): The ISO 3166-1 code for the United Kingdom is GB (Great Britain). However, the JANET network had already selected uk as a top-level identifier for its pre-existing Name Registration Scheme, and this was incorporated into the DNS root. gb was assigned with the intention of a transition, but this never occurred and the use of uk is now entrenched.
• su This obsolete ISO 3166 code for the Soviet Union was assigned when the Soviet Union still existed; moreover, new su registrations are accepted.
• ac (Ascension Island): This code is a vestige of IANA's decision in 1996 to allow the use of codes reserved in the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 reserve list for use by the Universal Postal Union. The decision was later reversed, with Ascension Island now the sole outlier. (Three other ccTLDs, gg (Guernsey), im (Isle of Man) and je (Jersey) also fell under this category from 1996 until they received corresponding ISO 3166 codes in March 2006.)
• eu (European Union): On September 25, 2000, ICANN decided to allow the use of any two-letter code in the ISO 3166-1 reserve list that is reserved for all purposes. Only EU currently meets this criterion. Following a decision by the EU's Council of Telecommunications Ministers in March 2002, progress was slow, but a registry (named EURid) was chosen by the European Commission, and criteria for allocation set: ICANN approved eu as a ccTLD, and it opened for registration on 7 December 2005 for the holders of prior rights. Since 7 April 2006, registration is open to all in the European Economic Area.

Historical ccTLDs

ccTLDs may be removed if that country ceases to exist. There are three ccTLDs that have been deleted after the corresponding 2-letter code was withdrawn from ISO 3166-1: cs (for Czechoslovakia), zr (for Zaire) and tp (for East Timor). There may be a significant delay between withdrawal from ISO 3166-1 and deletion from the DNS; for example, ZR ceased to be an ISO 3166-1 code in 1997, but the zr ccTLD was not deleted until 2001. Other ccTLDs corresponding to obsolete ISO 3166-1 codes have not yet been deleted. In some cases they may never be deleted due to the amount of disruption this would cause for a heavily used ccTLD. In particular, the Soviet Union's ccTLD su remains in use more than twenty years after SU was removed from ISO 3166-1. The historical country codes dd for the German Democratic Republic and yd for South Yemen were eligible for a ccTLD, but not allocated; see also de and ye. The temporary reassignment of country code cs (Serbia and Montenegro) until its split into rs and me (Serbia and Montenegro, respectively) led to some controversies about the stability of ISO 3166-1 country codes, resulting in a second edition of ISO 3166-1 in 2007 with a guarantee that retired codes will not be reassigned for at least 50 years, and the replacement of RFC 3066 by RFC 4646 for country codes used in language tags in 2006. The previous ISO 3166-1 code for Yugoslavia, YU, was removed by ISO on 23 July 2003, but the yu ccTLD remained in operation. Finally, after a two-year transition to Serbian rs and Montenegrin me, the .yu domain was phased out in March 2010. Australia was originally assigned the oz country code, which was later changed to au with the .oz domains moved to .oz.au.

Internationalized ccTLDs

Main article: Internationalized country code top-level domain

An internationalized country code top-level domain (IDN ccTLD) is a top-level domain with a specially encoded domain name that is displayed in an end user application, such as a web browser, in its native language script or a non-alphabetic writing system, such as Latin script (.us, .uk and .br), Indic script (.भारत) and Korean script (.한국), etc. IDN ccTLDs are an application of the internationalized domain name (IDN) system to top-level Internet domains assigned to countries, including the United Kingdom, or independent geographic regions. ICANN started to accept applications for IDN ccTLDs in November 2009, and installed the first set into the Domain Names System in May 2010. The first set was a group of Arabic names for the countries of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. By May 2010, 21 countries had submitted applications to ICANN, representing 11 languages. ICANN requires all potential international TLDs to use at least one letter that does not resemble a Latin letter, or have at least three letters, in an effort to avoid IDN homograph attacks. Nor shall the international domain name look like another domain name, even if they have different alphabets. Between Cyrillic and Greek alphabets, for example, this could happen.

Generic ccTLDs

Generic Country Code Top-Level Domain or gccTLD refers to those TLDs which are technically "non-restricted ccTLDs" but used like traditional generic TLDs (gTLDs) rather than "country"-targeted ones. Most of the gccTLDs are primarily used as domain hacks:

Unconventional usage

Main article: Vanity URL

Lenient registration restrictions on certain ccTLDs have resulted in various domain hacks. Domain names such as I.am, tip.it, start.at and go.to form well-known English phrases, whereas others combine the second-level domain and ccTLD to form one word or one title, creating domains such as blo.gs of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (gs), youtu.be of Belgium (be), del.icio.us of the United States (us), and cr.yp.to of Tonga (to). The .co domain of Colombia has been cited since 2010 as a potential competitor to generic TLDs for commercial use, because it may be an abbreviation for company. Several ccTLDs allow the creation of emoji domains. Some ccTLDs may also be used for typosquatting. The domain cm of Cameroon has generated interest due to the possibility that people might miss typing the letter o for sites in the com.

Commercial use

Some of the world's smallest countries and non-sovereign or colonial entities with their own country codes have opened their TLDs for worldwide commercial use, some of them free like .tk.

See also

• List of ccTLDs
• Country code top-level domains with commercial licenses
• Country code second-level domain
• ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 assigned codes
• Geographic top-level domain, a type of generic top-level domain
• List of NATO country codes

External links

• Official website
• "World Intellectual Property Organization". Domain name dispute resolution. WIPO.
• "World-Wide Alliance of Top Level Domain-names".
• "Country Code Names Supporting Organisation (ccNSO)". ICANN.
• Baskerville, Robert (Jan 16, 2008). "ccTLD and TLD analysis (of several Zone files)". Archived from the original on 2015-11-03. Retrieved 2008-01-13.