The company that registers domain names in the .tv country-code domain yesterday launched its service, aiming mainly at television companies of all kinds hoping to capitalize on the unique extension, proving that domains intended for use purely as designations of country or origin can be co-opted for commercial use. A Toronto, Canada-based company was contracted by the government of the South Pacific island of Tuvalu to register names on the .tv top-level domain, which had been assigned it by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). This was the business that caused some silly season hype in the business press earlier this summer because the government put out a statement saying the business would make its population the richest country in the world on a per capita basis. We wondered back then how that was going to happen just with a few thousand domain registrations, even if it does have just 10,000 inhabitants spread across nine atolls (08/13/98). But now we know: it is going to charge a lot per registration and hold an auction when two companies want the same name. And some of the names have already been reserved. The .TV Corp is charging $1,000 per registration per year and $500 for each annual renewal. However, company chief executive Jason Chapnik says the bulk of the revenues and renewal revenues, will go to Tuvalu. He claims to have signed a number of resellers in the US and Europe that will get referral fees for any customers they pass on that register names, but could not name any of them just yet. The .TV Corp was formerly known as Information.ca Corp.
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