tk domain Domain

The domain extension .tk is the country-specific top-level domain of Tokelau, an area consisting of three tropical coral atolls, located northeast of New Zealand and covering a total area of 12.2 square kilometres. Only about 1,500 people live here. In former times - during colonial times - this group of islands was called Union Islands.

Award criteria

The domain ending .tk was registered with IANA on 7 November 1997 and is administered by the state-owned telecommunications company Teletok. The marketing of domains under .tk contributes significantly to the GDP of the island state. The special feature is that the domains are not only allocated via accredited registrars, but also directly to end customers all over the world. If the .tk domain is actively used, it is free of charge. The registry can use its own name server or use a web forwarding. It is part of the registry's business that unused, free second level domains are deleted within three days without warning. The use of a .tk domain for pornographic or other contents harmful to minors is also punished in this way. And gambling domains also have no chance of remaining permanently registered. For the domains for which a fee is paid, other guidelines apply.

User group

Most of these domain extensions are registered in China, India and Russia by users. The distribution of the .tk domain is Europe and the USA is rather low. The inhabitants of the island state Tokelau itself can of course use such a domain. Only a few of the approximately 1,500 inhabitants of the islands have access to the WWW. The inhabitants of the island state were the last state in the world to receive a landline network, but only in 1994, three years before the .tk domain extension was launched. The inhabitants of the island state did not even get access to the WWW until September 2003, after the Tokelau Foundation set up a 384 kbps downlink and a 64 kbps uplink Internet connection on Fakaofo. This connection is via satellite and is active around the clock. This domain extension is often used by companies active in the telecommunications sector, which is also what the two letters stand for.