Tiny Islands, Massive TLDs: How Tokelau, Tuvalu, and Niue Built Some of the Internet's Largest Domain Extensions
We analyzed 3.18 billion observed hostnames across 1,511 TLDs and found that ten island territories with a combined population under 500,000 host 39.1 million hostnames. Tokelau's free-domain .tk holds 7.2 million hostnames but only 2.5% resolve. Tuvalu's .tv funded the nation's UN membership. Niue lost control of .nu entirely. Three islands, three models, three very different outcomes. Refreshed June 2026 with first-party DNS resolution data.