The world in domains: in an interesting graph, the registry service Nominet has been in charge of representing the international network and its respective domains. At first glance, the map doesn’t look weird, however, your analysis makes it clear that the proportions are not very appropriate. The Netherlands equals Russia in size, and Germany appears only slightly smaller than China. The reason: the area of each country is proportional to the number of domains registered under its name. Tokelau, the small island in the Pacific stands out above all .
From .com to .beauty
It’s been almost 26 years since the first website was created, and according to the Verisign Domain Report , more than 314 million domains have been registered around the world so far. The growth of the Internet industry remains constant. Over the past year, for example, the numbers increased by nine percent. Likewise, domain extensions have changed over the years. Previously, classic endings like . info or . com used to dominate the market, while today it is possible to register top level domains like . beauty , . dance or . Madrid .
. com remains the most widely used TLD . Approximately 123 million domains are registered under this ending, but which ending comes in second place? An easily justifiable answer would be to think of the PRC suffix. cn , being the most populous country in the world, with a total of 1.38 billion people, but it is not. The second place of the most common domain extensions is occupied by . tk , the country code top-level domain for Tokelau. This fact is suspicious considering that the archipelago, which is an integral part of New Zealand, is home to approximately 1,400 inhabitants and, even so, more than 31 million domains have been registered with its termination..
Have you heard of Tokelau?
Have you ever heard of Tokelau Island? Probably not, because the country is not a traditional tourist destination . There it is useless both to look for historical places of interest and to try to find an airport. This South Pacific country is more or less isolated and getting there is relatively complicated, only possible by taking a boat that leaves from Samoa twice a month. Tokelau does not have a great infrastructure and even less tourism.
What these three atolls in the middle of the Pacific do offer are secluded beaches, unspoiled nature and an almost totally isolated oasis of tranquility. The visual representation of this island sounds too corny to be true, almost like the proportion of Tokelau on Nominet’s map. So, how is it possible that such a small island with such a small number of inhabitants has managed to register so many domains?
Approximately 31 million web pages use the . tk, the official extension of Tokelau, a figure that compared to countries like Germany (which has about 16 million . de domains ) or the United Kingdom (which has about 11 million .uk domains ) is too high.
The business of .tk domains
Behind all this is a simple but profitable business idea . While previously it was possible to register a domain for free, as long as it was free, domain registration has now become a lucrative business. In 2002, a Dutch businessman established a registry business specializing in . tk .
Now, why specifically the ccTLD of this island? Very simple, because this domain extension can be registered free of charge. Currently, on the DOT TK page it is possible to register dominoes. tk for 12 months totally free, period after which a payment rate is set.
If the user is not interested in paying to rent the domain or if he stops using the domain . tk for an extended period of time, the registrar monetizes web page traffic and implements advertisements. Domain name registrar DOT TK is funded primarily through this advertising revenue . The inhabitants of Tokelau also benefit from this business, since a part of the income received belongs to the government of the island. Currently, this income represents a significant portion of the island’s gross domestic product, which is not surprising considering the ratio between the number of inhabitants and the number of registered domains.
PS Does it surprise you that the representation of the United States, the pioneer par excellence in terms of the new economy and the Internet, is so small? This is mainly because the domain . us is always used after the . com , which, due to its large number of records, is not included in the map.