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    • .se

    Country-code top-level domainsIDNDNSSEC

    Overview

    • .se is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Sweden, introduced on 4 September 1986.
    • It is operated by The Internet Foundation in Sweden (Internetstiftelsen) and domains must be registered through approved registrars.
    • The TLD is very popular in Sweden and is also used for domain hacks.

    History

    Early rules (pre-2003)

    • Prior to April 2003, registrations were highly restrictive: only nationwide companies, associations and authorities could register second-level .se names; individuals could register under pp.se; county-level registrations used single-letter county codes.
    • A variety of legacy second-level domains existed (for example a.se, b.se, org.se, pp.se, tm.se, press.se), many of which are no longer commonly used.
    • The lack of support for å, ä and ö originally caused workarounds and disputes (e.g., Habo vs Håbo over habo.se).

    Liberalization and IDN support (post-2003)

    • From 2003 the rules were relaxed: any entity or person may register any number of .se domains (subject to blocked/reserved lists), and allocation moved to first-come, first-served.
    • Internationalized domain names (IDNs) with å, ä, ö and other characters were accepted starting October 2003; on 6 September 2007 support expanded to 250 characters to cover Sweden's legally recognized minority languages (Finnish, Meänkieli, Sami, Romani and Yiddish).
    • .se was the first TLD to offer DNSSEC services (implemented using OpenDNSSEC).

    Notable incidents

    • On 12 October 2009 the entire .se domain was unavailable for 58 minutes after an error during routine maintenance corrupted registry data.

    Usage and Audience

    • Primary users are entities and individuals connected with Sweden: businesses, organizations, public authorities and private persons (since 2003).
    • Widely used domestically and viewed as the standard national TLD for Swedish sites; many organizations also register ASCII equivalents for names containing å/ä/ö (e.g., skane.se) and may redirect IDN variants.
    • The TLD has been used for domain hacks, and many English-word + "se" names have been targeted by domain speculators; most prime names on that market are now taken or available only on secondary markets.
    • Certain specialized second-level labels remain in use or reserved in practice (for example .domstol.se for courts).

    Registration Rules

    Eligibility

    • Any natural person or legal entity that can be identified via a Swedish personal identification number, corporate identity number, or a registration designation in a governmental register may apply for a .se domain name.
    • Registrations must be made through Internetstiftelsen's approved registrars.

    Blocked and reserved names

    • Internetstiftelsen maintains a blocked/reserved list. Examples and categories include:
      • Strings matching Swedish personal identity number formats (xxxxxx-xxxx and xxxxxxxx-xxxx) are blocked.
      • Two letters followed by two hyphens (reserved for IDN syntax) are blocked.
      • Designations protected by specific laws or regulations are blocked and reserved for the entitled organization.
      • Some main domains (such as county-letter names) are blocked for new registrations; existing registrations under those may continue while renewed.

    Allowed characters, length and syntax

    • Domain names must contain at least 1 and at most 63 characters.
    • Allowed characters include ASCII letters a–z, digits 0–9, hyphens, and characters required for Swedish and Sweden's official minority languages (as well as letters used in Finnish, Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic). A full IDN character table is maintained by Internetstiftelsen.
    • Additional syntax rules:
      • Characters from the Latin set and Hebrew set must not be mixed in the same name.
      • If a name contains a Hebrew character it must not start or end with a digit.
      • A domain name cannot have a hyphen in both positions three and four.
      • A domain name cannot begin with a hyphen.
      • A domain name cannot have a hyphen directly before the ".se" label.

    SEO and Brand Impact

    • .se is widely used and recognized in Sweden, which supports local trust and relevance for Swedish audiences.
    • Adoption of IDNs for names with å, ä and ö has been limited in practice; many organizations prefer ASCII equivalents and redirects.
    • Deployment of DNSSEC is a technical measure that can improve domain integrity and trust.

    Notable Cases or Examples

    • Habo vs Håbo: a legal dispute over habo.se highlighted issues caused by limited character support and first-to-register outcomes; the municipalities later arranged a shared solution.
    • 12 October 2009 outage: a registry maintenance error made the entire .se zone unavailable for 58 minutes.
    • .se was the first TLD to offer DNSSEC services and later expanded IDN support to cover minority languages.
    • Registered domains: 1,466,636 domains were registered under .se as of 31 March 2024.

    Operator

    The Internet Infrastructure Foundation

    Whois

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

domain:       SE

organisation: The Internet Infrastructure Foundation
address:      Box 92073
address:      Stockholm SE-120 07
address:      Sweden

contact:      administrative
name:         SE Administrative Contact
organisation: The Internet Infrastructure Foundation
address:      Box 92073
address:      Stockholm SE-120 07
address:      Sweden
phone:        +46 8 452 35 00
fax-no:       +46 8 452 35 02
e-mail:       registry@internetstiftelsen.se

contact:      technical
name:         SE Technical Contact
organisation: Netnod AB
address:      Greta Garbos väg 13
address:      Solna 169 40
address:      Sweden
phone:        +46 8 562 860 10
e-mail:       noc@netnod.se

nserver:      A.NS.SE 192.36.144.107 2a01:3f0:0:301:0:0:0:53
nserver:      B.NS.SE 192.36.133.107 2001:67c:254c:301:0:0:0:53
nserver:      C.NS.SE 192.36.135.107 2001:67c:2554:301:0:0:0:53
nserver:      F.NS.SE 192.71.53.53 2a01:3f0:0:305:0:0:0:53
nserver:      G.NS.SE 130.239.5.114 2001:6b0:e:3:0:0:0:1
nserver:      I.NS.SE 194.146.106.22 2001:67c:1010:5:0:0:0:53
nserver:      M.NS.SE 194.0.11.112 2001:678:e:112:0:0:0:53
nserver:      X.NS.SE 2001:67c:124c:e000:0:0:0:4 213.108.25.4
nserver:      Y.NS.SE 185.159.197.150 2620:10a:80aa:0:0:0:0:150
nserver:      Z.NS.SE 185.159.198.150 2620:10a:80ab:0:0:0:0:150
ds-rdata:     59407 8 2 67a8e06fcefdd9397f77f26c41ade4ec142f299bcfa1827f0ef8fd87f2f63022

whois:        whois.iis.se

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information:
remarks:      https://www.internetstiftelsen.se

created:      1986-09-04
changed:      2025-07-17
source:       IANA

    Registrars