ht-domain Domain

The domain extension .ht is the country-specific top-level domain of the island state Haiti, which occupies the western part of the island Hispaniola, which is part of the Greater Antilles. In the eastern part of Hispaniola is the island state Dominican Republic. The country has only a weak economic power, for which
unstable political situation. At the beginning of 2010, a severe earthquake in the southern part of Haiti claimed around 316,000 lives and destroyed the centre of the capital Port-au-Prince. To date, the consequences of the most devastating earthquake have not yet been eliminated and large parts of the infrastructure have not yet been rebuilt. As a result of the unrest and this natural disaster, around three million Haitians have emigrated since the mid-1990s. Today, about 11 million people still live in Haiti.

Allocation guidelines of the domain extension

The domain extension .ht was launched on March 6, 1997 and is administered by the corresponding domain consortium FDS/RDDH with headquarters in Port-au-Prince. The actual release of the domain ending did not take place until January 2004. Since 17 May 2004, domains can be registered directly under .ht as well as within the scope of one of the official second level domains. The use of the top-level domain was temporarily restricted after the 2010 earthquake. Existing .ht domains were however accessible. The reason for this was that the name servers were operated abroad and were therefore not affected by the technical consequences of this natural disaster.

Use and meaning

Since today - also in the wake of the natural disaster of 2010 - the infrastructure is still not fully developed, especially in the south of Haiti and in and around the capital Port-au-Prince, the use of the domain extension .ht has lost much of its importance, whereas it was already very low before. Many of the already few factories in the western part of the island of Hispaniola have been destroyed and the companies no longer exist. There is hardly any foreign investment in Haiti. One reason for this is the not very clear political situation in the country, which has been dominated again and again by dictators. Previous international interventions have not helped to improve the political situation in the country.