Columbia's Newest Export: "Dot Co"
Since it was introduced last year Columbia’s new web domain .co has become a top-seller in the internet domain market. The domain is short, which makes it practical to use on Twitter and other social media networks .
It’s also easy to remember because it’s like the .com domain which is the most popular in the whole world. Especially British companies use it because it is a short form of .co.uk that companies and businesses use.
Columbia thinks it can make a lot of money with the top-level domain because it is difficult to get a free .com domain today. There are already a hundred million such domains. Chances are that if you want a certain .com name, it’s not available anymore, so .co would be a great alternative. Other countries are also competing in the domain market and making profit out of it, like Tuvalu (.tv) or Montenegro (.me)
In the past year the Columbian government has sold about 1 million of its top-level domains. Big global businesses want to use short web addresses for their internet presence . Google has announced that it bought a Columbian domain for its alternative URL g.co. Twitter already uses its new address t.co.
Ordinary .co domains cost between $15 and $25 and can be registered within minutes. Columbia uses most of the money to improve internet access and broadband connections.
Related Topics
Words
- access = the right to use something
- announce = to say officially
- available = to be had, exist
- broadband = to use internet connections at a very high speed
- business = company
- compete = fight for something
- domain = part of a website’s address ; the last part shows in which country the website is registered
- especially = above all
- global = worldwide
- government = the people who rule a country
- improve = to make better
- ordinary = normal
- popular = well-liked
- practical = useful
- presence = to show that you exist
- profit = money
- register = to put something down on a list
- social media network = internet platforms where users can communicate with each other and share private information
- top-level = the last part of an Internet address
- top-seller = very popular
- URL = internet address