ccTLD Microtrends in Recent Years
As the domain space continues to evolve each year, many different trends have been at the forefront. In past years it was the growth of .tk for Tokelau, which hit over 26 million registered domains by 2022 by giving away free domains for a year. Then in 2023, the influx of registrations for .ai, the ccTLD for Anguilla, began, driven by the world-wide craze for all things artificial intelligence.
This year, the trend we’re seeing at Markmonitor is the globalization of ccTLDs as they open their markets to those outside of their respective regions. Let’s do some table setting.
What is a ccTLD?
A Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) is a two-letter Internet top-level domain (TLD) specifically designated for a particular country, sovereign state or autonomous territory for use in servicing their community.
For example, .us is the ccTLD for the United States and .es is the ccTLD for Spain. Now, an interesting bit about ccTLDs is that outside of a few contracted parties with ICANN, ccTLDs operate independently from ICANN.
The Operation of ccTLDs
This independent structure means that ccTLD managers generally have the rights to dictate what happens with their ccTLD. That being said, the ccTLD global community does have a body within ICANN, the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO), that provides a forum for ccTLD managers to meet and discuss issues and concerns regarding ccTLDs from a global perspective. The ccNSO also provides recommendations to the ICANN board for a limited set of issues related to ccTLDs and ccTLD governance.
As is the ccTLD managers right, they get to set the rules for their ccTLD. Some ccTLDs restrict registration, usage and access to their space through local presence requirements, meaning a specific individual or entity must have a physical presence in the region to manage the domain, .tn for Tunisia is a good example where a physical presence in Tunisia is required to maintain registration and management of a domain.
In other cases, ccTLDs remove any restrictions and become open ccTLDs, which we’ll dive into more in this article. This open status means any entity or individual can register a name in that region without having a physical presence. Having open ccTLDs presents a major commercial opportunity for ccTLD registries and for prospective registrants who may want to expand their business in that region. Some of the more well-known examples of open ccTLDs are .tv for Tuvalu and .co for Colombia. Commercial opportunities for such ccTLDs are more often seen when the two character ccTLD can have multiple meanings, such as TV for ‘television’ and .co as an alternative to .com for ‘company.’
ccTLD Management and Globalization
A good point to remember when looking into ccTLDs is how the ccTLD is managed, whether that be by a governmental agency, a university in the region or through a private entity tasked with enhancing the internet in the region.
Generally, open ccTLDs are more often found when a private entity is tasked with management of the ccTLD. It is because of this management type that globalization can be easier to achieve. When a ccTLD is managed by a governmental agency or university there is the potential that ccTLD growth won’t occur as easily and efforts to globalize the ccTLD can be harder to achieve. It may be due to investment into the ccTLD, its infrastructure or education efforts in the local region to bring the local population up to speed with the ccTLD and its uses.
For example, regarding .tk mentioned earlier, the ccTLD .tk was a delegated string to Tokelau; however, management of the ccTLD was assigned by the government of Tokelau to a private company in 2000 who were tasked with the day-to-day running and promotion of the ccTLD. Once the management of the ccTLD was delegated to a private company, the ccTLD saw consistent growth.
In the final case, some ccTLD managers prefer to keep their ccTLD restricted to their region as there may not be a need to globalize a ccTLD because the primary use case for the ccTLD lies with entities and individuals in the region. A prime example of this restricted ccTLD type is .de representing Germany. The .de ccTLD is the most popular top-level domain in Germany; its registry’s marketing and education efforts have been successful and the German population has taken advantage of their ccTLD. Compare that to .us — rarely do entities in the United States utilize a .us ccTLD for their primary site, instead, they often prefer to use a .com.
Recently Globalized ccTLDs
Let’s look at examples of two countries that have recently globalized their ccTLDs. Malaysia’s .my recently removed all local restrictions for the second level .my TLD allowing for global registrations of the ccTLD. Globalization of .my makes sense, it allows for individuals all over the world to register their brand or name in the space, thereby controlling the “my” version of their domain name.
Looking back at the dual meaning theory above, .my or “my” is synonymous with possession – my car keys, my domain name. The globalization aims to grow the .my ccTLD through registration count by expanding business opportunities not only in the Malaysian markets, but also by creating a primary use case for individuals to register their .my domain name. With globalization, however, comes an increased risk of abusive domain name registrations. Without restrictions in place, more malicious registrations can occur and with those registrations come more DNS abuse incidents.
The .cv ccTLD is the second example I’d like to focus on — .cv is the ccTLD for the Republic of Cabo Verde, located in Africa. The .cv ccTLD has a dual meaning as it also stands for ‘curriculum vitae,’ which is a record of a person’s entire education, publications, accomplishments, notable projects, awards, honors, achievements, and professional experiences. For the American audience, this is referred to as a resume. The .cv registry recently removed restrictions and allowed for direct registrations of the .cv ccTLD without requiring a presence on the Cabo Verde islands. With this opening of restrictions, the registry plans to expand the .cv registration count by offering individuals the ability to register a .cv name to create an online resume that can then be shared with potential employers instead of a printed copy of their cv. The use case for .cv is quite unique, and in my opinion, pretty cool. Online resumes are becoming more and more useful when looking to share your achievements and work experience with potential employers.
The Potential Impacts of Globalizing ccTLDs
“How does this impact brand and trademark holders?” you may ask.
The answer has three parts. The first part is that it gives entities more of an opportunity to expand their consumer base in various regions. If your organization has plans to expand in APAC, EMEA, or the Americas, then securing the ccTLD version of your brand name can potentially better help you reach the local consumer.
Secondly, on top of having a brand name presence in the region, the usage of a ccTLD can allow you to capitalize on novel marketing opportunities. We talked about the .cv ccTLD and the curriculum vitae usage above, so to continue that example, think about a company registering the domain createyour.cv and through the tools of either artificial intelligence or simply human power, creating a CV or resume development site that individuals can use to help enhance their professional career. Another example is .fm, the ccTLD for the Federated States of Micronesia. FM also stands for ‘frequency modulation’ and shares that connection with FM radio. Websites can be created that use a .fm ccTLD for radio shows, music, and podcasts.
The third potential impact is less fun as it creates more opportunities for bad actors to register your brand name and potentially create harmful situations for your organization.
When restrictions are in place, entities have extra protections from these bad actors, however, once they are removed, it can open the gates to increased malicious registrations. This impact of the globalization of ccTLDs for brand owners can be severe. Not to scare the reader, but the reality is that when ccTLDs become more readily available to the everyday consumer, the bad actors of the world will take advantage and register well-known brand names.
As a brand owner, it can be a difficult situation when someone creates brand dilution or brand impersonation in the domain space by registering your brand name and ccTLD globalization can present these challenges that you’ll have to manage. Don’t fret, Markmonitor has the answers! The first and most important is being proactive in your ccTLD brand registration strategy — knowing where your organization plans to expand and defining the risk tolerance levels your organization has for its brand can help you identify which ccTLDs you will and won’t need to register. In some cases, you will want to register and secure domains in every ccTLD you can and in other cases your registration strategy may be more regionally focused and less risk averse.
Markmonitor Can Help You Craft Your ccTLD Registration Strategy
The team at Markmonitor can assist you with creating your ccTLD domain registration strategy, providing advice on which areas you will need to protect yourself in and which ones aren’t as great a risk to your brand. Also, consider taking advantage of domain blocking services that exist, like GlobalBlock, DPML, and Nameblock, all of which include ccTLDs in their block coverage. Using these services can provide a level of comfort as you know your brand name will be protected from registration in those ccTLDs. These services are created to ensure brands are protected en masse and to help brand owners achieve their brand protection goals.
ccTLD Globalization and ICANN’s Next Round of New gTLDs
There are many ccTLDs that are globally available beyond the examples mentioned in this article, and the next round of new gTLDs in 2026 will play a factor in the continued globalization of ccTLDs. You may be wondering why that is and it’s because of the increase in namespaces in which domains can be registered.
I believe the ccTLD community is aware of this impact and is working to stay at the forefront of it. With so many avenues for prospective registrants to go down, and with the success that .ai had in 2023, it is understandable that ccTLDs globalize and expand into new markets. When geographic gTLDs were introduced in the first round of new gTLD applications, many were applied for and delegated by ICANN (think .nyc and .hamburg). These geographic gTLDs are targeted more towards specific regions within a specific ccTLD and they can pose market share problems for ccTLDs. There is the potential for more geographic gTLDs being applied for in the next round and that could pose a major problem for the relevancy and usage of some ccTLDs.
Let Markmonitor Help You Stay on Top of ccTLD Microtrends
At Markmonitor, we aim to stay at the forefront of domain news and developments, especially regarding the globalization of ccTLDs. We like to ensure that our clients are “in the know” about trends in the domain sector and how and where action should be taken to better protect your brand in the space. If you’d like to learn more about ccTLDs or how Markmonitor can assist your brand, please reach out to your Domain Portfolio Manager or contact us here.
