The dust has settled on the operation rights of .CO, and Team Internet and CCI have won

The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology of Colombia (MINTIC) has completed the 10-year operation tender for the national top-level domain name (ccTLD) .co. As a result, Consórcio Equipo PuntoCo (co-formed by Team Internet and Colombian local registrar CCI REG) officially won and obtained the management rights for the next 10 years.

Composition and terms of the cooperative companies

Team Internet Group PLC is a London-based Internet infrastructure service provider listed on the AIM market with multiple domain name and digital advertising businesses;

CCI REG (Central Comercializadora de Internet) is Team Internet's local joint venture partner and jointly established a new entity "Equipo PuntoCo".

According to the terms of the contract, the joint venture will retain 8% of the gross income from domain name registration and renewal revenue as operating remuneration, and the remaining 92% of the income will belong to the Colombian government, which is 11 points higher than the previous 81% share, to promote the national digital connection plan.

.CO is the national domain name suffix of Colombia, but more than a decade ago, it transformed into a "corporate domain name" choice for global enterprises and innovators through a market reshaping strategy. With its simplicity and universality, the .CO domain name is popular among a large number of startups, brands and individual users around the world. The current registration volume exceeds 3 million, making it one of the most successful national domain names in the international market.

This tender is the only one in history to enter the open competition stage and attract four bidders, including Identity Digital, Registry Services LLC and Radix. GoDaddy, as the current operator, also participated in the bidding but ultimately lost.