Domain .com

Top level domain .com

The .com domain was one of the first top-level domains when the Domain Name System was first implemented for use on the Internet on January 1, 1985. However, the domain was administered by the Department of Defense of the United States (DoD). the department contracted maintenance of the domain to SRI International. SRI created DDN-NIC, also known as SRI-NIC, or simply the NIC (Network Information Center), then accessible online with the domain name nic.ddn.mil. Beginning October 1, 1991, an operations contract was awarded to Government Systems Inc. (GSI), which subcontracted it to Network Solutions Inc. (NSI).

On January 1 of 1993 the National Science Foundation assumed responsibility for maintenance as .com was being used primarily for non-defense interests. The NSF contracted the operation to Network Solutions (NSI). In 1995, the NSF authorized NSI to begin charging registrants an annual fee for the first time since the start of the domain. Initially, the fee was $ 50 per year, with $ 35 going to the NSI and $ 15 going to a government fund. New registrations had to be paid for the first two years, making the registration fee for the new domain $ 100. In 1997, the United States Department of Commerce assumed authority over all generic TLDs. It is currently operated by VeriSign, which had acquired Network Solutions. VeriSign then spun off the non-registration functions of Network Solutions into a separate company that continues as a registrar. In the English language, the domain is often written with a leading period and is commonly pronounced as dot-com, and has entered a common language in this way.

Although .com domains were originally intended to designate business entities, the domain has had no restrictions on eligible registrants since the mid-1990s. With the commercialization and popularization of the Internet, the domain was opened to the public and quickly became the most common top-level domain for websites, email and networks. Many companies that flourished in the period from 1997 to 2001, the time known as the "dot com bubble", incorporated the .com tag into company names. These became known as dot-coms or dot-com companies. The introduction of biz in 2001, which is limited to business, has had no impact on the popularity of communication.

Although companies anywhere in the world can register .com domains, many countries have a second level domain with a similar purpose under their own country code top level domain (ccTLD), such as Australia (com.au), China (com.cn), Greece (com.gr), Israel (co.il), India (co.in), Indonesia (co.id), Japan (co.jp), Mexico (com.mx), Nepal ( .com.np)), Pakistan (com.pk), South Korea (co.kr), Sri Lanka (com.lk), United Kingdom (co.uk) and Vietnam (.com.vn).

Many non-commercial sites and networks use .com names to benefit from recognition of a .com domain. However the registration statistics show a variable popularity over the years.

In December 2011 VeriSign reported that approximately 100 million .com domains were registered. According to the Domain Name Industry Report published in March 2020, which is released every quarter, the .com domain registration totaled 145.4 million. As of March 2009 VeriSign reported that 926 accredited registrars serve the domain.

On November 29 2012 the US Department of Commerce approved the renewal of the .com Registry Agreement between Verisign, Inc. and ICANN. Through this agreement, Verisign managed the .com registry until November 30, 2018.

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