ccTLD

In short: “Country Code Top-Level Domain” — a country-specific TLD like .de, .at or .fr, derived from the two-letter ISO 3166 country code.

In more detail: Every ccTLD is managed by a national registry (for .de, for example, DENIC) and often has its own, country-specific registration policies (e.g. requiring an admin-c resident in the respective country).

In Depth

ccTLDs differ considerably in their registration rules. Some are practically open to anyone (e.g. .io, which actually belongs to the British Indian Ocean Territory but is used worldwide mainly by tech startups), others require an actual local connection — for .de, for example, DENIC’s guidelines require naming an administrative contact (“admin-c”) with a legally serviceable address in Germany.

Some ccTLDs are deliberately registered for their letter combination rather than their geographic meaning (“domain hacking”) — .tv (actually Tuvalu) for streaming services, .ai (actually Anguilla) for AI startups, .fm (actually Micronesia) for radio/podcast projects. This brings the respective island nations sometimes considerable revenue from domain registration.

See also: TLD, Country Codes, Geographic TLD