I'm always surprised when I see people building businesses on any of the ccTLDs. The only one I would use is .ca, but that's because I'm from Canada. There ar

I'm always surprised when I see people building businesses on any of the ccTLDs. The only one I would use is .ca, but that's because I'm from Canada. There are no guarantees with ccTLDs and any problems that come up might be exacerbated by language and cultural barriers. Regardless, I have the .co, .me, and .io that match my best .com domain even though I'll never use them. I'd do the same for .ai, but it's too expensive. Even the new gTLDs are iffy depending on your risk tolerance. In my opinion, the only truly "safe" domains since ICANN removed most price controls [1] are .com and .net. Also, many of the new gTLD registries are owned by Ethos Capital via Identity Digital [2] (Donuts + Afilias). > In January 2021, Ethos Capital acquired Donuts after their failed bid to gain control over the .org internet domain. [3] Similar to ccTLDs, I'd only register domains on many of the new gTLDs for brand protection and wouldn't use them or rely on them. I wouldn't say to never use those TLDs, but I would use a strategy that only relies on them for shortening URLs and redirecting traffic to top tier TLDs. For example: somecompany.balloons --> somecompanyballoons.com And never let a non-premium new gTLD registration lapse if there's a chance you want to use it. AFAIK, domains can't be reclassified as premium while they're registered, but they can, and do, get reclassified after expiration. 1. https://domainnamewire.com/2019/06/30/domain-overseer-lifts-all-price-caps-on-org-domain-names/ https://domainnamewire.com/2019/06/30/domain-overseer-lifts-... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_Digital https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_Digital 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donuts_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donuts_(company)