43. Top-Level Domains

Those letters at the end of web addresses can mean big bucks — and, for some small countries, a substantial part of the national budget. Zachary Crockett follows the links. SOURCES:Vince Cate, technical contact for the .ai domain in Anguilla.Kim Davies, Vice President of Internet Assigned Numbers Authority Services and President of Public Technical Identifiers at ICANN.Tianyu Fang, contributing editor at Reboot. RESOURCES:"The Two-Decade Fight for Two Letters on the Internet," by Jacob Judah (The New York Times, 2024)."Whose Domain Is It?" by Tianyu Fang (Reboot, 2023)."How a Tiny Pacific Island Became the Global Capital of Cybercrime," by Jacob Judah (MIT Technology Review, 2023)."The Tropical Island With the Hot Domain Name," by Rachel Metz (Bloomberg, 2023)."The Never-ending ccTLD Story," by Peter K. Yu (SSRN, 2003). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.