The domain registry authority responsible for operating .CO domains has today announced that over one million such domains have been registered since global launch in July 2010. It has taken the .CO Internet S.A.S. just under one year to achieve this commendable milestone.
The .CO domain is the country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Colombia. The Colombian government recognised the potential that .CO had in becoming a “relevant, credible, and global domain name extension” and opened this to the rest of the world. Search engines like Google and Bing treat the TLD exactly the same as others like .COM, .NET and .ORG.
In December 2010 .CO boasted 600,000 registered domains, so it’s clear that growth is progressing steadily. Growth which can be credited to successful marketing, the need for a .COM alternative, and the backing of large and influential companies like Twitter who use t.CO as their official URL shortener, and Amazon who purchased a.CO, z.CO, k.CO and cloud.CO last month.
Naval Ravikant, founder of Angel List speaks of the increasingly established mainstream awareness of .CO domains,
“Mainstream awareness of .co is building with huge brands like Amazon, Twitter, and Overstock; and so is awareness of entrepreneurs that their next domain doesn’t need to be 23 letters long or lack vowels or cost a million dollars.”
.CO domains can be purchased from a handful of Irish domains registrars, including our friends at Blacknight who currently offer .CO domains at a reduced rate.