meaning of co domains
.co is a generic top-level domain (TLD) short for “company.” Globally, many recognize “co” as an abbreviation for company or corporation, and many country code domain extensions use it to differentiate a commercial context (for example, amazon.co.uk).
Meaning of .co domains
.co domain was closely associated with websites and businesses in Columbia. .co is no longer the sole use of this extension. In July 2010, GoDaddy introduced this domain as a mainstream alternative to the .com. The main objective of using the .co domain is for real businesses to have the next best thing when they cannot find a.com to use. To date, 75% of the web owners that use this domain are associated with various commercial and corporate endeavors.
It is administered by .co Internet S.A.S., a subsidiary of Neustar since 2014. As of July 10, 2010, there were no registration restrictions on second-level .co domains; any individual or entity worldwide can register a .co domain.
Global demand for .co domains
It took a little while to discover people were willing to pay top dollar for this short and catchy domain extension. When registrations opened to the world in 2010, an auction of the highly desirable e.co brought in $81,000.00. Soon, the .co domain sparked interest and adoption by well-known businesses worldwide. Today, you can see big names taking advantage of .co, including:
Amazon (a.co.)
Google (g.co)
Snapchat (s.co.)
Twitter (t.co)
GoDaddy (x.co)
More than 2 million .co domains have been snapped up worldwide. (Obviously, there’s something about it that people love.) The appeal of .co domain names reaches far beyond companies, corporations, and commerce.
How prevalent are .co domains?
.doc domains currently account for about 1% of all registered domains on the Internet.
.Co Domains Other specifications:
Maximum registration period: 5 years
Transfer purchase requirement: 1 year
Transfer authorization required: No
Auto-renew timing versus expiration date: 14 days before the expiration date
Auto-renew grace period: One day
Expiration disruption period: Zero days
Renewal grace period: 3 days
Restoration grace period: 30 days (After the renewal grace period, you have a certain number of days to restore the domain for another year. After that time, it becomes available to the public for registration)
Availability wait period: 35 days (When a domain is deleted, you must wait a certain number of days before the domain is available to the public for registration)
Privacy protection allowed: Yes
Privacy protection provider: Whois Proxy
The domain name supports non-ASCII characters (for example, À, É, Î, or グ). Yes, IANA Repository of IDN Practices
Number of characters in a domain name: 2-63
Number of name servers: 2-13
Supports Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC): Yes