The U.K.-based company earned 32 million dollars last year, more than 10 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). Like Korea’s .kr and Japan’s .jp, the country’s domain name is .ai. Anguilla, which has been using this domain since the late 1980s, has gained unexpected benefits by receiving commission fees due to a series of companies trying to register their homepage addresses as .ai due to the recent ai craze.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup X.ai also has to pay commission fees to receive the domain name. It is said that the company collects commissions ranging from 140 dollars to thousands of dollars per domain registration. “Some people call it a windfall, but we just say that God is giving us a smile,” said Angelis Webster, the prime minister. According to Webster, the money earned from the domain fees last year was used to invest in free medical services and educational facilities. The company has also used the money to improve airport facilities and double its budget for sports activities and facilities, Webster added. The company expects to earn the same amount of commission fees as last year.Meanwhile, Anguilla is not the first country that has won windfall from its domain. Tuvalu, located in northeast Australia, sold its national domain name .tv to a Canadian company for 50 million dollars, electrified the island, funded by scholarships and funds for joining the U.N.
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
