Harish Palaniappan's: Tuvalu Islands: The nation that got lucky

Heard of the Tuvalu islands?.. (pronounced Too-va-loo)

No!.. ok.

Heard of costliest internet domain suffix .tv ?

Yes!.. Good. Like every nation has been given a suffix on the internet, like .in for india and .cc for canada, the tuvalu islands got the lucky .tv suffix which incidentally has brought the tiny tiny distant islands into perspective of the world. Hailed, as the fourth smallest country in the world tuvalu islands is making good money with the selling of .tv domains to such extent that it got enough money by 2000 to join the united nations given its small size, population and economy.

The executives at a company Idealabs Inc., in california were quick to estimate the potential of the domain suffix allocated to tuvalu islands, and took full exclusive license to sell .tv domain names to customers through the company dotTV (http://www.tv). Through the deal tuvalu islands would be paid a huge sum for every year in royalty and licences for a decade to come.

Tuvalu has around 10000 people in its country and only 27 square miles in size (should be approx 70 sqkm). It is the fourth smallest country in the world in terms of area - behind the Vatican City, Monaco and Nauru. In terms of the population it is the second smallest, with only the Vatican City having fewer people.

The country made big money through its jackpot with internet. Other than the .tv domains, the country earns steady revenue through its ISD code 688 which became popular because of the sequence (again lucky) through which lots of phoneSex calls are routed by various countries. The island though feels embarrased on this aspect.

Another core revenue earner for tuvalu is stamps.
Since achieving independence in 1978 from the british who ruled till then, much of Tuvalu's foreign earnings have come from the sale of its postage stamps.

Harish Palaniappan's

Tuvalu Islands: The nation that got lucky

written on: October 3, 2005