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Tonga's .to Domain: The Wild West of the Early Web
21 Feb
Summary
- Tonga's .to domain sold for $100 amidst the late 90s domain name frenzy.
- Over 17,000 sites registered under .to domain in just two years.
- Today, over 1.2 billion websites exist, with domains easily accessible.
In the late 1990s, a unique opportunity emerged from the Kingdom of Tonga, a small Pacific island nation. Entrepreneurs Eric Gullichsen and Eric Lyons obtained permission to sell domain names under Tonga's country code top-level domain, .to.
This initiative offered a cheaper alternative to the escalating prices of .com domains, which were experiencing a speculative gold rush. During this period, valuable domains were rapidly acquired, with business.com fetching a record $7.5 million in December 1999.
Gullichsen and Lyons' scheme proved immensely popular. With just a $100 fee and a credit card, individuals and enterprises could secure a presence on the growing web. Within two years, over 17,000 .to domains were registered, demonstrating the venture's bootstrap success.
Nearly three decades later, the internet has transformed significantly. The world now hosts an estimated 1.2 billion websites, with approximately 175 new sites created every minute. Creating websites and registering domains are now remarkably accessible and affordable, a stark contrast to the chaotic early days of the internet.
