China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has welcomed .co, giving it a 5-year accreditation for full commercial operations. It makes it the first ccTLD to receive such accreditation.
Since 2014 a number of new gTLDs, including .vip, .shop and .ltd, have received accreditation from the MIIT to operate in China, meaning Chinese registrants can now host domain names in these TLDs and the relevant websites on Chinese servers. Being a short 2 letter TLD, .co should appeal to Chinese registrants.
.CO is the country code top level domain for Colombia, but since 2010 second level .co domain names have been promoted more as a generic top level domain. It is one of only a few ccTLDs to be recognised as such by Google in its search results as well as being seen as an alternative to .com. Third level registrations, such as .com.co and .org.co, are also available but restricted to Colombian businesses, government and individuals.
Since launching for worldwide domain registrations in 2010, vast numbers of technology innovators and entrepreneurs have chosen .co domain names. Regularly identified with successful startups and world-famous brands, .co’s “halo effect” — a certain credibility granted to startup companies adopting .co domains — is a powerful benefit that is already enjoyed by millions of brands, businesses and entrepreneurs, and will now be available to the Chinese market.
“The final barrier our Chinese .CO domain owners have faced has now been overcome,” said Crystal Peterson, .CO Internet Director of Sales and Marketing. “Domain names ending in .CO are now fully approved in China along with China’s own .CN top-level domain, and other well-known global domains, such as .com and .biz.”
