Sometimes, your name really makes or breaks you.
Tuvalu, an island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, between Australia and Hawaii, is home to about 11,000 citizens.
It also has the immense good fortune to be given the country code TV.
… if you can find it.
As we all know, video streaming is becoming a really big thing on the internet, and it’s set to become even bigger. And with top level domains, Tuvalu has been gifted with the .tv domain. Prior to 2017, Verisign has been managing .tv domain sales for Tuvalu, and in turn paying the Tuvalu government $2m per year, plus commission on top. In 2016, Verisign renewed their contract through to 2021, and will now pay $5m annually.
The 2016 estimated GDP for Tuvalu was $32m. With the new $5m annual royalty, this will put .tv revenues well past 10% of their GDP.
Not bad for not doing much!