A country code top-level-domains (ccTLD) has traditionally been used to signify a country-specific web site or resource, or simply to tell users where a given organization is located. For example, Russia’s leading search engine, Yandex, is hosted at www.yandex.ru and The Holy See hosts its site at www.vatican.va (.va = Vatican City).

Then along came the the marketing of .TV.

This ccTLD, owned by the island nation of Tuvalu, was licensed and packaged as the ultimate domain for any media property. And though the domain hasn’t exactly become as popular as .COM, a precedent had been set — ccTLDs weren’t just for country-specific properties anymore.

Then along came Delicio.us, a company that cleverly embedded the United States ccTLD into its brand name.

First ccTLD were freed from their borders. Then they found themselves melded into brand names.

And here we are today, with a growing number of companies that have registered country code top-level-domains (ccTLDs) not as appendages to their brand names, but as part of their brand names. By my count, more than 30 ccTLDs are now used as part of corporate brand names — or as branded “link shorteners” along the lines of bit.ly.

If you have anything to add, please contact me.

  1. amzn.to
  2. art.sy
  3. Bi.ng (Bing.com)
  4. Bit.ly
  5. Bre.ad
  6. Cloud.li
  7. Delicio.us
  8. drop.io
  9. econ.st (Economist)
  10. Elbo.ws
  11. Favicon.cc
  12. fav.or.it
  13. FB.me
  14. Fits.me
  15. FormSpring.Me
  16. good.is
  17. goo.gl
  18. graphic.ly
  19. imo.im
  20. Instagr.am
  21. Is.gd
  22. itsalmo.st
  23. itun.es
  24. j.mp
  25. Kissa.be
  26. Knx.to
  27. look.fo
  28. McAf.ee
  29. Mag.ma
  30. Mediaqueri.es
  31. MoPho.to
  32. MyID.is
  33. notify.me
  34. Outside.in
  35. N.pr (National Public Radio)
  36. Nyti.ms
  37. Ow.ly
  38. Page.ly
  39. Pdk.to
  40. Pen.io
  41. Photocheck.in
  42. Pi.pe
  43. Rafi.ki
  44. Short.LA
  45. So.cl
  46. Spot.us
  47. Su.pr
  48. T.co (Twitter)
  49. Tcrn.ch
  50. Tr.im
  51. wp.me
  52. YouTu.be
ccTLD Legend
  1. .ad – Andorra
  2. .am – Armenia
  3. .be – Belgium
  4. .ch – Switzerland
  5. .cl – Colombia
  6. .fo – Faroe Islands
  7. .ee – Estonia
  8. .gd – Grenada
  9. .gl – Greenland
  10. .im – Isle of Man
  11. .in – India
  12. .io – British Indian Ocean Territory
  13. .is – Iceland
  14. .it – Italy
  15. .ki – Kiribati.la – Laos
  16. .li – Lichtenstein
  17. .ly – Libya
  18. .ma – Morocco
  19. .me – Montenegro
  20. .mp – Northern Mariana Islands
  21. .ms – Montserrat
  22. .ng – Nigeria
  23. .pe – Peru
  24. .pr – Puerto Rico
  25. .es – Spain
  26. .st - Sao Tome & Principe
  27. .sy – Syria
  28. .to – Tonga
  29. .us – United States

Thanks to AusRegistry and Gunnar Bittersmann for input.

For a handy map of all ccTLDs, check out the Country Codes of the World.

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8 Responses to Creative Country Codes

  1. dahamsta says:
    December 15, 2009 at 7:12 pm

    Foot.ie is admittely an Irish soccer site, but the intention was always to spell out Footie. Unfortunately many of our netizens don’t get it, and call the site “Foot”. I kid you not. :)

  2. dahamsta says:
    December 15, 2009 at 7:13 pm

    Oh, I also have explic.it (inactive), perm.it (mail filter) and verbo.se (blog). I’m a collector. :)

  3. Mike Curtis says:
    December 16, 2009 at 3:07 am

    Trust me…there are many more coming like this!

    If you or your company are interested in obtaining a short or unique domain name in the .mp ccTLD (like the one we provided j.mp) then please contact us at support @ get.mp

  4. Frédéric Grosshans says:
    December 16, 2009 at 10:36 am

    You have other exemples, including cr.yp.to and i.am at wikipedia: at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_hack

  5. Bit.ly Pro is great news for ccTLD owners | Global by Design says:
    April 15, 2010 at 3:43 pm

    [...] collected a running list of companies using ccTLDs in creative ways here. I expect this list to grow rapidly in the months ahead. Reading: Bit.ly Pro is great news for [...]

  6. Merlin: Translation News, Services & Directory » Blog Archive » Has .com lost its “must have” status? says:
    May 11, 2010 at 5:11 am

    [...] And there are also a small but growing number of companies leveraging ccTLDs as part of their brand names, such as bit.ly and Notify.me. In some cases the ccTLDs are used to support brevity in URLs, but other times they’re used to support a creative brand name. I’ve  collected a list of these “creative country codes” here, [...]

  7. Merlin: Translation News, Services & Directory » Blog Archive » Has Dot Com Lost Its “Must Have” Status to Facebook and Local? says:
    May 11, 2010 at 7:04 pm

    [...] And there are also a small but growing number of companies leveraging ccTLDs as part of their brand names, such as bit.ly and Notify.me. In some cases the ccTLDs are used to support brevity in URLs, but other times they’re used to support a creative brand name. I’ve  collected a list of these “creative country codes” here, [...]

  8. Another day, another abused country code - Global by Design says:
    August 31, 2011 at 7:57 am

    [...] my current list of companies that have used ccTLDs in non-standard ways. I’ve so far documented the use of 28 [...]