Last June, Twitter joined the .CO Founders Program with the single letter domain t.co, and the popular microblogging website used t.co over the past year as part of a service to protect users from harmful activity.
This week, Twitter was officially granted the domain name t.co from the .CO registry (according to Whois records), in what appears to be an early move by the .CO registry permitting Twitter to register the domain name with their own registrar.
According to the original fine print of the .CO Founders Program, each domain licensed would be granted to the applicant after the applicant met all terms and conditions of the agreement after a minimum of 2 years (or sometimes longer for domains considered “Super Premium” by .CO Internet). However, in the case of t.co, Twitter has been granted the name much sooner.
You better believe Twitter got a bargain.
Companies like Overstock.com opted to purchase .CO domains. Overstock paid $350,000 for the single letter domain, o.co.
Other companies like GoDaddy, which was licensed x.co under the .CO Founders program have not been granted the domain as of yet.