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    • .do

    Country-code top-level domains

    Overview

    • .do is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to the Dominican Republic.
    • Introduced on 25 August 1991 and administered by the Network Information Center .do (NIC.DO).
    • Registry operator / sponsor: Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM), Recinto Santo Tomás de Aquino.
    • Intended for entities connected with the Dominican Republic; widely used within the country and occasionally for domain hacks and URL shorteners.

    History

    • 25 August 1991: .do was introduced.
    • NIC.DO (the Network Information Center .do of PUCMM) has administered the domain since its early operation.
    • 1995: IANA delegated administration of the .do ccTLD to Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM).
    • Registered domains: 38,059 (reported 2023-06-13).

    Usage and Audience

    • Primary audience: individuals, businesses, organizations and institutions connected with the Dominican Republic.
    • Common uses:
      • Local presence and national websites for Dominican entities.
      • Domain hacks and short URLs (examples include gizmo.do and ninten.do).
    • Second-level namespaces available for specific sectors (see Registration Rules).

    Registration Rules

    • Eligibility:
      • Any person or company can register most .do domains.
      • Certain third-level domains (.gob.do, .gov.do, .mil.do) are restricted to Dominican government or military institutions and require additional documentation (e.g., a signed letter for .gov.do).
    • Second-level and third-level options (examples):
      • .do — general use
      • .edu.do — educational institutions or research
      • .com.do — commercial organizations
      • .org.do — non-governmental institutions
      • .net.do — Internet service providers
      • .web.do — web services organizations
      • .art.do — arts institutions
      • .sld.do — health institutions
      • .gob.do / .gov.do — governmental institutions (restricted)
      • .mil.do — military institutions (restricted)
    • Reserved names:
      • NIC.DO maintains a list of reserved names that cannot be registered (including names related to IANA/ICANN structure, certain Internet terms, existing gTLDs/ccTLDs and terms reserved for NIC.DO operations).
    • Technical/format rules:
      • Maximum length: 63 characters for a domain label.
      • Minimum length: second-level domains minimum two letters; third-level domains may be one character.
      • Allowed characters: letters (English alphabet), digits (0–9) and hyphen (-).
      • Hyphen rules: cannot appear at the beginning or end of a label; cannot be used in the third and fourth positions simultaneously (restrictions related to specific formatting/Punycode patterns).
    • Enforcement and security:
      • NIC.DO may suspend, block, cancel, transfer or take ownership of domain names if they are used in activities that risk the stability, integrity or security of NIC.DO, registrars, registrants or Internet users. Examples of prohibited/malicious activities include phishing, pharming, malware dissemination, fast flux hosting, DDoS, botnetting and hacking.

    SEO and Brand Impact

    • As a country-code TLD, .do signals a Dominican Republic connection and is commonly used to indicate a local presence.
    • The TLD has also been leveraged for branding creativity (domain hacks) and compact URL shorteners, which can support marketing and recognition when aligned with brand strategy.

    Notable Cases or Examples

    • gizmo.do — used by Gizmodo as a URL shortener / domain hack example.
    • ninten.do — used by Nintendo as a URL shortener / domain hack example.

    Operator

    Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra, Recinto Santo Tomas de Aquino

    Whois

    % IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       DO

organisation: Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra, Recinto Santo Tomas de Aquino
address:      Ave. Abraham Lincoln Esq. Romulo Betancourt
address:      Santo Domingo 2748
address:      Dominican Republic (the)

contact:      administrative
name:         VICERRECTORIA DE ADMINISTRACION Y FINANZAS
organisation: Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra Campus Santo Tomas de Aquino
address:      Ave. Abraham Lincoln Esq. Romulo Betancourt
address:      Santo Domingo 2748
address:      Dominican Republic (the)
phone:        +1 809 535-0111 # 2141
fax-no:       +1 809 534-7060
e-mail:       adm-iana@nic.do

contact:      technical
name:         Clara Collado
organisation: Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra
address:      Ave. Abraham Lincoln Esq. Romulo Betancourt
address:      Santo Domingo 2748
address:      Dominican Republic (the)
phone:        +1 809 535-0111 #2049
fax-no:       +1 809 286-0012
e-mail:       claracollado@pucmm.edu.do

nserver:      A.LACTLD.ORG 200.0.68.10 2801:14:a000:0:0:0:0:10
nserver:      NS.NIC.DO 190.113.72.177 2001:13e0:85d0:106:0:0:0:177
nserver:      NS1.NIC.DO 190.113.72.178 2001:13e0:85d0:106:0:0:0:178
nserver:      NS2.NIC.DO 190.113.65.12 2001:13e0:0:1:0:0:0:12
nserver:      NS4.NIC.DO 2001:500:14:6124:ad:0:0:1 204.61.216.124
nserver:      NS5.NIC.DO 190.113.65.13 2001:13e0:0:1:0:0:0:13
nserver:      PHLOEM.UOREGON.EDU 128.223.32.35 2001:468:d01:20:0:0:80df:2023

whois:        whois.nic.do

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://www.nic.do

created:      1991-08-25
changed:      2025-08-21
source:       IANA

    Registrars