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    • .vc

    Country-code top-level domains

    Overview

    • .vc is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
    • Introduced on 3 September 1991.
    • Intended for entities connected with Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, but registration is open worldwide and the TLD is commonly used for unrelated, brandable purposes.

    History

    • The .vc ccTLD was introduced on 3 September 1991.
    • The domain is sponsored/managed by a government ministry in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; the Wikipedia infobox lists the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Information Technology as sponsor/registry (operated by Afilias), while other sources cite the Ministry of Telecommunications, Science, Technology and Industry as the managing ministry.
    • Timeline of registry operations:
      • 31 October 2000: Registry operations contract awarded to Tucows; Tucows serviced .vc through its subsidiary Liberty RMS.
      • 25 March 2002: Afilias acquired Liberty RMS from Tucows and the binding registry operations contract for .vc was assigned to Afilias.
      • 9 July 2002: Names under .vc began to be registered by the public; they began resolving the following month.

    Usage and Audience

    • Registration is open worldwide and the TLD is used both by entities in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and by a wide variety of unrelated sites.
    • Common thematic uses and audiences:
      • Venture capital firms and startups (interpreting .vc as "venture capital").
      • Technical projects (e.g., version control services) and developers.
      • Voice and video chat or conferencing services.
      • Regional uses (e.g., Ventura County) and other niche or creative brandings.
      • Portuguese-language play on words: .vc can be read as "você" (you), enabling domain hacks such as com.vc to be interpreted like "with you" in Portuguese.
    • The TLD is sometimes mistakenly assumed to belong to other entities (for example, the Vatican City State uses .va).

    Registration Rules

    • Registration is open to anyone worldwide; the TLD has no formal restrictions listed.
    • Domain name characters: letters, numbers, and hyphens only; IDN support is not available (no internationalized domain names).
    • Structure: registrations are available directly at the second level or at the third level beneath various second-level names.
    • Some sources note there is no single official public registry website for .vc.

    SEO and Brand Impact

    • .vc is frequently used as a brandable, niche TLD rather than strictly a geographic identifier.
    • Because it is associated with terms like "venture capital," "version control," and "video conferencing," organizations in those spaces may use .vc to signal relevance to those audiences.
    • The TLD's flexibility for wordplay (including Portuguese-language interpretations) makes it useful for marketing and domain hacks.
    • There is no specific information provided about search engine penalties or special WHOIS/SEO treatment for .vc in the source material.

    Notable Cases or Examples

    • Common use cases cited in source material include:
      • Venture capital-related sites and startups.
      • Services for voice and video communication.
      • Projects related to version control.
      • Regional or local uses such as Ventura County.
      • Portuguese-language domain hacks leveraging .vc as an informal abbreviation of "você" (you), for example com.vc being read as "with you" in Portuguese.
    • The TLD is sometimes confused with the Vatican's .va, though they are distinct.

    Operator

    Ministry of Telecommunications, Science, Technology and Industry

    Whois

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

domain:       VC

organisation: Ministry of Telecommunications, Science, Technology and Industry
address:      Egmont Street
address:      Kingstown
address:      Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

contact:      administrative
name:         Jacqueline Creese
organisation: Ministry of Telecommunications, Science, Technology and Industry
address:      Egmont Street
address:      Kingstown
address:      Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
phone:        +1 784 457 1007
fax-no:       +1 784 457 2880
e-mail:       jcreese@gov.vc

contact:      technical
name:         Howard Eland, Senior Director, DNS Infrastructure Group
organisation: Identity Digital Inc.
address:      10500 NE 8th Street, Suite 750
address:      Bellevue Washington 98004
address:      United States of America (the)
phone:        +1.425.298.2200
fax-no:       +1.425.671.0020
e-mail:       tldtech@identity.digital

nserver:      A0.CCTLD.AFILIAS-NST.INFO 199.254.59.1 2001:500:25:0:0:0:0:1
nserver:      A2.CCTLD.AFILIAS-NST.INFO 199.249.116.1 2001:500:44:0:0:0:0:1
nserver:      B0.CCTLD.AFILIAS-NST.ORG 199.254.60.1 2001:500:26:0:0:0:0:1
nserver:      B2.CCTLD.AFILIAS-NST.ORG 199.249.124.1 2001:500:4c:0:0:0:0:1
nserver:      C0.CCTLD.AFILIAS-NST.INFO 199.254.61.1 2001:500:27:0:0:0:0:1
nserver:      D0.CCTLD.AFILIAS-NST.ORG 199.254.62.1 2001:500:28:0:0:0:0:1
ds-rdata:     54391 8 2 8e38107261b61499f2e57a72e762ef501798a0462cb69e6afcc9c4a2539e6bff

whois:        whois.identitydigital.services

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: 

created:      1991-09-03
changed:      2024-07-09
source:       IANA

    Registrars