.coop

. coop is a generic top -level domain ( gTLD ). It was introduced on 15 December 2001 and of the DotCooperation based in Washington, DC managed. This is a subsidiary of the so-called National Cooperative Business Association, which has requested the ICANN domain. This happened in the context of the liberalization of rules for generic addresses in 2000.

The extension. Coop is an abbreviation for cooperatives to German cooperatives. The top -level domain is solely intended for such companies and rather insignificant in comparison to other generic email addresses. Thus, the contracting authority after the introduction filed a year, only 30 active websites under the domain. On 20 June 2003, approximately 7,500 addresses were registered, more recent figures are not available.

Due to the lack of success criteria for the award. Coop have been greatly liberalized over the years, most recently in 2008. So it is to eligible cooperatives since then possible to register additional domains to the structure of categories. Discounts when ordering multiple domains are also unusual and expressly laid down by the contracting authority of. Coop. Since December 2008, even very short addresses are assigned, consisting of only one or two characters.