Dot TK, the registry for .TK domain names, has issued a news release claiming they have registered their 15 millionth domain name. There is something fishy about this claim. To have 15 million domain names registered would make them the largest ccTLD surpassing .CN (China)âs 13.6 million registrations and .DE (Germany)âs 12.8 million.
Then again, Dot TK could be claiming there have been 15 million .TK domain names registered over the full length of time .TK domain names have in operation. A very spurious statistic if so, given every other registry counts total registrations at any particular point in time. This would be like a telecommunications company noting the total number of customers they have ever had, when every other company claims the total number of customers at a given point in time.
Sure, there are thousands of free .TK domain names registered, but have you seen more than one or two in use for email or websites, even those shortened domain names? Free domain names have a requirement they should be visited at least 25 times in every 90-day period with limited licensing rights. Paid domains do not have this minimum requirement.
News releases are meant to be creative, but there must be something meaningful about them.