The island made tens of millions of dollars by selling the domain name .ai
Anguilla, an island in the Caribbean, is expected to earn more than 30 million USD this year thanks to the sale of .ai domain names.
According to Bloomberg , Anguilla has owned the .ai domain name since the 1990s and "went unnoticed" for a long time. However, since the end of last year, the AI fever has caused many companies, from startups to big technology names, to rush to buy this domain name.
Among them, Stability.ai, X.ai and Character.ai are AI companies that have purchased Anguilla's domain names. Alphabet and Meta also use two domain names Google.ai and Facebook.ai for websites focusing on artificial intelligence, while Microsoft uses Microsoft.ai to introduce Azure AI cloud services.
The .ai domain name and the computer display lines of programming code. Photo: AIM
According to a public filing, Anguilla earned $7.4 million from .ai domain name registrations in 2021. But by the end of 2022, demand spiked due to the emergence of ChatGPT.
"Since November 30 last year, things have been very different here. We didn't anticipate ChatGPT's popularity," said Vince Cate, who has managed the .ai domain for Anguilla since 1994. "In just the past year, the number of .ai domain name registrations has increased dozens of times. It is estimated that Anguilla will earn 30 million USD in registration fees for this domain name in 2023 alone."
Compared to other domain names, revenue of 30 million USD is only a small fraction. But in Anguilla - a territory with an area of only 102 km2 and a population of 15,000 people, this number is equivalent to more than 10% of GDP. Currently, the country's economy relies heavily on tourism, which has been hit hard during the pandemic.
.ai domain names are sold through intermediary companies such as GoDaddy or NameCheap. These businesses then paid Anguilla $140 for two years of use, up from $120 in mid-April.
Bao Lam (according to Bloomberg )
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