Tokelau isn't the first small country to entrust the management of its Internet extension to an outside firm. But the unusual business model chosen for .TK by registry Dot TK has seemingly yielded impressive results.
Tokelau may be a small group of islands off New-Zealand, its Internet extension is very much based in Europe. Dot TK BV is the Dutch company involved in a joint venture with the government of Tokelau to manage .TK.
The way Dot TK has gone about that task is said to have done wonders for the local economy. "Dot TK operates a unique business model which makes it very distinct in the domain name market," Dot TK Business Development Manager Matt Kelly told Domaines.Info during an exclusive interview. "We have over 1.8 million registered domains in active use, and we register 10,000 new ones daily. To put this in perspective: that is more than .IT or .FR, and means .TK is in the top ten most successful ccTLDs in the world (in fact, according to Domaines.Info's own statistics, that total puts .TK just outside the world top ten –ed.)! What is unique about this is that about 1.7 million of these domains are registered free of charge, with Dot TK retaining rights and generating revenue through targeted advertising."
The way it works is that anyone can request a .TK domain free of charge. If the domain is still available, the applicant doesn't actually become its owner. Rather, he is granted a "right of use" by Dot TK and can use the domain to point to an active website, where Dot TK will add its own advertising.
"The effect of this in the market has been to massively raise the profile of the .TK extension," says Kelly. "This in turn has led to a huge increase in our paid domain portfolio, which contains no Dot TK advertising, and carries full rights, functioning in exactly the same way as .COM, .NET, .AU or any other extension. The increased visibility of the .TK extension has led to an increased awareness among Fortune 500 and other large corporations that protecting their trademarks and brands with .TK domains is a wise investment as the usage of .TK domains continues to grow."
So just like any other extension, .TK recently organised a Sunrise period to relaunch itself properly. That Sunrise ran from October 26 to December 3, 2007. "Starting today, everyone can register any domain they want," said Dot TK CEO Joost Zuurbier on the day the Sunrise ended. "If any trademark issues arise, we will guide the registrant and the trademark owner to our WIPO-based domain name dispute policy, which is enforced on all paid domain name registrations."
Now that the Sunrise is over, Dot TK is working on making its two distinct business models complement each other to boost sales and increase .TK's global footprint. "We're set to grow yet further in 2008 with many exciting innovations entering our free domain offering, which in turn will again increase awareness of - and demand for - paid .TK domains," Kelly concludes.
• Accredited registrar Dot TK has started building its network of partners and accrediting registrars. The first, and currently the only accredited registrar in France is INDOM.
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