to-domain Domain

The domain .to is the country-specific top-level domain of the island state of Tonga. The registry "Tonic" has administered the domain since 1997, and the domain itself was introduced on 18 December 1995.
The Kingdom of Tonga is an island state in the South Pacific, north of New Zealand. Over 100,000 inhabitants live on 177 islands.
Advantages of the domain .to are especially the anonymity. Since Tonic does not offer a Whois service, the owners of such a domain can remain completely anonymous on the Internet. So it is not possible to find out who is running the domain. This makes the website especially popular with users who are consciously in the legal or illegal grey area of the internet, also because Tonic does not care much about the legal violations. With many other addresses this is not the case. However, Tonic also blocks terms related to pornographic content. However, an official and public list with all not allowed words is not yet available on the internet.
Another advantage, besides the anonymity, is the large choice of names. Since there are only about 50,000 known websites with the .to domain, the choice of names is large for the buyer.
The assignment of the domain .to is not restricted. In an automated procedure, the domain is assigned to every applicant in every place of residence, which means that the domain can be used worldwide.
Tonic, however, these advantages can be paid for at a high price. Such a domain costs up to 50 USD in one year. In direct comparison with other addresses, the domain .to costs a lot more (domain .de: 10 USD).
Well known websites with the top level domain are for example uploaded, handyblocker, as well as many video on demand websites. These video websites are in a legally copyright problematic area, so the domain protects the operators of the site. Video-on-demand websites with the domain .to are for example kinox, movie4k or s.to, which are among the most visited websites in the German-speaking world.