The opening of the public tender for the administration of the .CO domain, will be held in January 2025, According to the announcement by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies, according to experts, this operation will have million-dollar profits for Colombia.
The current administration, led by the American company GoDaddy, will end in October 2025, which opens the door to new opportunities to strengthen Colombia’s digital economy. In interview with RCN Radio, Gerardo Aristizábal, manager of mi.com.co highlighted what is expected from this process.
“Well, the.co domain is the most important digital asset in the country. This is something that is not taken into account locally in Colombia and let’s say that it is not on the radar of many of the interest groups, but it represents one of the greatest opportunities that Colombia has, both in industry development and generation of income in the technology sector,” Aristizábal highlighted.
From October 2020 to July 2024, the .CO domain generated revenues of 507 billion pesos, with a 17.5% increase in registered domains, going from 2.6 million to 3.1 million.
“I consider that the ministry is already aware that the growth of the domain.co internationally has been very great, but locally in the country, if we compare ourselves with other countries such as Mexico, such as Chile, the Adoption of our own domain and our own identity on the Internet is quite behind what one would expect to be achieved,” he expressed.
These figures show its international relevance, since more than 96% of registrations are made from abroad. .CO is the second most important domain in Latin America and is ranked 19th globally.
To this end, it suggests that the government lead awareness-raising and promotion campaigns for .CO at the local level, in order to strengthen the digital presence of national businesses and close the gap with other countries in the region, such as Mexico and Chile.
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The sustained growth of the .CO domain has made it possible to finance connectivity, cybersecurity and digital inclusion projects in the country. According to MinTIC figures, the income generated by .CO has had an average annual growth of 11.3%, consolidating itself as a crucial source for the development of technological infrastructure.
The 2025 tender is seen by experts as an opportunity to increase the participation of local actors in the operation of this strategic resource.
The process of The allocation of the .CO domain is framed in the guidelines of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), international organization that regulates the internet domain industry.
Fountain: Integrated Information System
