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| Introduced | 13 October 1997 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Country code top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | eNIC (a VeriSign company) |
| Sponsor | Island Internet Services |
| Intended use | Entities connected with  Cocos (Keeling) Islands |
| Actual use | Varied site topics; few sites relate to the islands |
| Registration restrictions | None |
| Structure | Registrations permitted at second level |
| Documents | Registration agreement |
| Dispute policies | UDRP |
| Registry website | Verisign .cc Registry |
On the Internet, .cc is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian territory. It is administered by a United States company, VeriSign, through a subsidiary company, eNIC, which promotes it for international registration as "the next .com". The .cc domain was originally assigned to eNIC in October 1997 by the IANA; eNIC manages the TLD alongside SamsDirect Internet.[1]
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus also uses the .cc domain, along with .nc.tr. Google treats .cc as a generic top-level domain (gTLD) because "users and website owners frequently see [the domain] as being more generic than country-targeted."[2]
Registration is made directly at second-level.
The TLD is preferred by many cricket and cycling clubs, as well as churches and Christian organizations, since "CC" can be an abbreviation for "Christian Church" or "Catholic Church". Some open-source/open-hardware projects, such as the Arduino project, use a .cc for their home pages, since "CC" is also the abbreviation for "Creative Commons", whose licenses are used in the projects. Business owners in Southern Massachusetts are rapidly adopting Cape Cod CC domains for local identity. Canadian Club whiskey has also used .cc domains for marketing purposes.[citation needed] It is also used for some community colleges, though other domains, such as .edu, are more popular.
- ^ "S. Hrg. 107-1100 - Icann Governance". GovInfo.gov. U.S. Government Printing Office. 14 February 2001. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
- ^ "Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites". Archived from the original on 5 October 2019. Retrieved 5 October 2019.