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Dot TK

From ICANNWiki
Type: Privately Held
Industry: Internet
Founded: 2001
Founder(s): Balder Alofs, Joost Zuurbier
Headquarters: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Website: dot.tk
Facebook: Dot TK Facebook
LinkedIn: Dot TK Facebook
Twitter: @dottk
Key People
Joost Zuurbier, CEO

Marcel Trik, CFO
Maurice van der Meer, CTO
Tino Vitale, Teletok Director

Dot TK is the registration division of Taloha, Inc., which is a joint venture of a private organization, BV Dot TK, with the Tokelau governmental telecommunications body, Teletok.[1][2] BV Dot TK, which is doing business as Dot TK registry, has been appointed by the Tokelau Government as the exclusive entity for the .tk ccTLD registration. They are known for their innovative Open ccTLD, wherein a limited-use .tk domain is provided free of charge. They also sell domains and accept donations.

It is the only free domain registry.[3]

The Creation of a Free, Open ccTLD[edit | edit source]

In 2001, a Dutch entrepreneur, Joost Zuurbier, proposed the idea of establishing the Tokelauan .tk domain, and to set up a unique model where registration would be provided for free. The idea is somewhat analogous to the free email services provided by large ICT companies, such as MSN and Google. Tokelau was an ideal country for the project of creating the world's first open, and free ccTLD as it had no existing IT infrastructure. After finalizing the deal with local people, Zuurbier went on to convince ICANN, which took about 5 more years. ICANN insisted on meeting the local elders, most likely to ensure they were not being misled or acting as a front for the abuse of ccTLD rights by a foreign entity. For a time, ICANN insisted that the servers and necessary infrastructure be placed on the island, but they were eventually swayed to allow off-shore servers when they learned more about the extremely sparse resources available on the island. Once ICANN approved the project, Teletok was formed to manage Tokelau's newly established IT infrastructure, and Dot TK was given exclusive registration management rights.[4] Registration of .tk domain names has been provided free of charge since then to increase global awareness of Tokelau. However, you can choose to pay to get full rights over the domain and support the government of Tokelau.[5] To stop the illegal and pornographic activities on .tk domains, Teletok has developed a system that detects and blocks such material.[6]

Dot TK is the world's largest ccTLD registry and second largest TLD after .com, with more than 16.7 million domain names registered.[7] Joost visited the country of Tokelau in 2003, and every few years he meets the Ministers of the country and the managing director of Teletok, the local ICT and registry authority.

Dot TK has created double digit increases in Tokelau's GDP. Tokelau has benefited substantially from the establishment of its own domain, as the revenue of island has been increased considerably. Besides this, Tokelau is now much more accessible to the rest of the world. The Government of Tokelau is trying to find more renewable energy sources to ensure reliable power supply across the island. They have been using the funds raised by .tk to reinvest in their ICT infrastructure, opening Internet cafes, installing high-speed Internet access.[8] [9][10][11]


The .tk registry has been one of the pioneers in domain name auctions. In September 2009, they announced the first live domain name auction with live broadcast on the nic.tk site. During the auction a total of 212 lots were auctioned, mainly generic domain names, like futbol.tk and poker.tk.[12]

Offices[edit | edit source]

The registry is funded privately and has offices in the following regions:[13]

  • Douglas, Isle of Man
  • Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • London, United Kingdom
  • Palo Alto, USA

Mission[edit | edit source]

The company has its DNS root-servers in every region of the world, which provides the support for handling worldwide registrations. The registry has been mainly created for a social impact so as to make the people of the world aware of Tokelau, a Pacific territory of New Zealand and its community. This is to establish associations with bigger corporations for enhancing communication, medical expertise and education in the region and to directly fund the island using the royalty fees earned from selling the domain names.[14]

Services[edit | edit source]

  • Free Domains - Dot TK provides free domains with .tk extension., though its free names come with limited rights[15][16]
  • TK Mailias - You can create an alias email which can be disposed after you have finished your work. Such disposable email alias can be used for online shopping, for social networking websites and general privacy issues.
  • Tweak - Using Tweak you can rename a URL into a shorter one. You just type the URL or copy/paste and click the next icon; Dot TK will provide you with a smaller URL.[17][18]

References[edit | edit source]

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