Country-code top-level domainsIDNDNSSEC
Overview
- .co is the country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Colombia (delegated December 24, 1991).
- While a national ccTLD, .co is widely marketed and used internationally as a generic/brandable domain space and by startups and companies.
- The registry and operational arrangements have evolved over time; DNSSEC is supported and the domain is administered under Colombian regulatory oversight.
History
- 1991-12-24: .co assigned to Colombia and originally delegated to Universidad de los Andes.
- Early 2000s: Discussions and disputes between the university and Colombian government about commercialization and regulatory authority.
- 2009: .CO Internet S.A.S. was appointed via a public procurement process; ICANN approved re-delegation in December 2009.
- 2010-07-20: Second-level .co domains (example.co) became generally available worldwide.
- 2014: .CO Internet S.A.S. (Registry Services LLC) was acquired by Neustar (reported purchase price: US$109 million).
- 2020: GoDaddy completed acquisition of Neustar's registry business and became operator of several TLDs including .co (announcement in 2020).
- 2019–2020: Colombia's Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies (MinTIC) updated the framework for administration; MinTIC selected registry services providers and, as of 2024, MinTIC is identified as the manager with contracted registry services in place.
Usage and Audience
- Typical users:
- Colombian businesses, government and institutions (especially under restricted third-level zones like .gov.co, .edu.co, .mil.co).
- International companies and startups seeking short, brandable domain names (commonly used by technology startups and marketing campaigns).
- Adoption and scale:
- Reported registration milestones include 500,000 names by September 2010, over 1 million by mid-2011, ~1.6 million by January 2014, and 2.2 million by December 2018. DomainTools reported nearly 3 million active .co domains as of February 2021.
- Market characteristics:
- .co has been popular in the secondary market (noted high average secondary-market price behind .com) and has attracted single-letter and short domains favored by brands.
- Cautions:
- .co is sometimes used in typosquatting because it is visually similar to .com.
Registration Rules
- Eligibility and restrictions:
- Second-level registrations (example.co) are open to anyone worldwide; there are no domicile or burdensome documentation requirements for .co, .com.co, and .net.co.
- Some third-level zones are restricted for local use only:
- .org.co — non-profit entities in Colombia
- .edu.co — educational institutions recognized by Colombia's National Ministry of Education
- .mil.co — Colombian Armed Forces
- .gov.co — Colombian government agencies
- Registration periods: typically between 1 and 5 years, renewable.
- Characters and IDN support:
- Allowed: Latin letters (a–z), digits (0–9), and the hyphen (-).
- Spanish-specific characters permitted: á, é, í, ó, ú, ñ, ü.
- IDNs are supported; IDN variants and language groups became available in stages (Spanish since 2010; Scandinavian, Asian, and various European language sets added in subsequent years).
- For IDN encoding (xn-- format), the registry enforces rules such as disallowing the hyphen in the 3rd and 4th positions (reserved for punycode prefixes).
- Policy and security:
- Dispute policy: UDRP is applied.
- DNSSEC: supported/enabled.
- Accredited registrars:
- Only accredited registrars may sell .co domains directly; lists of accredited registrars are published by the registry (GO.CO/.CO Internet).
SEO and Brand Impact
- Google treats .co as a generic top-level domain (gTLD-like) for search purposes, meaning .co domains can be ranked for global targeting when content is internationally relevant.
- Brand considerations:
- .co is often used for short, memorable, or startup-oriented brands and for URL-shortening.
- Because of similarity to .com, .co can be both an asset (short, brandable) and a liability (potential confusion or typosquatting).
Notable Cases or Examples
- Single-letter and short domains assigned to major companies include:
- a.co — Amazon
- g.co — Google (used as official URL shortener)
- t.co — Twitter/X (used as official URL shortener)
- o.co — Overstock.com (used in a branding effort)
- s.co — Snapchat
- m.co — Volvo Car Mobility
- b.co — Bestseller
- y.co — Y.CO (Yacht Company)
- Notable corporate usages and anecdotes:
- Google purchased g.co (reported purchase figure cited in sources) and uses it for official short links.
- Twitter uses t.co as its URL shortener to mitigate malicious links.
- Overstock purchased O.co and briefly used it as a brand, later returning to Overstock.com in some markets.
- Amazon acquired several short .co names (examples include a.co and others) for brand protection and services.
- Taco Bell used ta.co as a short link redirect to tacobell.com as part of a mobile-focused strategy.
Operator
Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies (MinTIC)
Domain Promos
Registrar | Price | Discount |
---|---|---|
阿里云 | 66 |
Whois
% IANA WHOIS server % for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org % This query returned 1 object domain: CO organisation: Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies (MinTIC) address: Edificio Murillo Toro address: Cra.8 #Entre Calles 12A y 12B address: Bogotá D.C. Cundinamarca 111711 address: Colombia contact: administrative name: Thiago Grijo Dal-Toe organisation: Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies (MinTIC) address: Edificio Murillo Toro address: Cra.8 #Entre Calles 12A y 12B address: Bogotá D.C. Cundinamarca 111711 address: Colombia phone: +57 (601) 344 3460 fax-no: +57 (601) 344 2248 e-mail: cctld.co@mintic.gov.co contact: technical name: Gonzalo Romero organisation: .CO Internet S.A.S. address: Calle 93B # 12-28 address: Oficina 203 address: Barrio Chico Norte (Chapinero) address: Bogotá D.C. 110221 address: Colombia phone: +57 (601) 794 89 99 e-mail: gonzalo@cointernet.com.co nserver: NS1.CCTLD.CO 2001:dcd:1:0:0:0:0:14 37.209.192.14 nserver: NS2.CCTLD.CO 2001:dcd:2:0:0:0:0:14 37.209.194.14 nserver: NS3.CCTLD.CO 2001:dcd:3:0:0:0:0:14 37.209.196.14 nserver: NS4.CCTLD.CO 156.154.103.25 2610:a1:1010:0:0:0:0:21 nserver: NS5.CCTLD.CO 156.154.104.25 2610:a1:1011:0:0:0:0:21 nserver: NS6.CCTLD.CO 156.154.105.25 2610:a1:1012:0:0:0:0:21 nserver: NS7.CCTLD.CO 204.74.105.1 2610:a1:3180:0:0:0:0:53 nserver: NS8.CCTLD.CO 204.74.107.1 2610:a1:3280:0:0:0:0:53 ds-rdata: 62110 8 2 4857ee1a85e661c92156ad09b40139dae7d5be37d117a1223289f0e20cf9d654 whois: whois.nic.co status: ACTIVE remarks: Registration information: http://www.cointernet.com.co created: 1991-12-24 changed: 2025-06-20 source: IANA