A dot-com company, or simply a dot-com (alternatively rendered dot.com, dot com, dotcom or .com), is a company that conducts most of its businesses on the Internet, usually through a website on the World Wide Web that uses the popular top-level domain ".com".[1] As of 2021, .com is by far the most used TLD, with almost half of all registrations.[2]
The suffix .com in a URL usually (but not always) refers to a commercial or for-profit entity, as opposed to a non-commercial entity or non-profit organization, which usually use .org. The name for the domain came from the word commercial, as that is the main intended use.[3] Since the .com companies are web-based, often their products or services are delivered via web-based mechanisms, even when physical products are involved. On the other hand, some .com companies do not offer any physical products.[4]
History
Origin of the .com domain (1985–1991)
The .com top-level domain (TLD) was one of the first seven created when the Internet was first implemented in 1985; the others were .mil, .gov, .edu, .net, .int, and .org.[5] The United States Department of Defense originally controlled the domain, but control was later transferred to the National Science Foundation as it was mainly used for non-defense-related purposes.[6]
Beginning of online commerce and rise in valuation (1992–1999)
With the creation of the World Wide Web in 1991, many companies began creating websites to sell their products. In 1994, the first secure online credit card transaction was made using the NetMarket platform.[7]
See also
References
- dot com company TheFreeDictionary.com, retrieved 2018-07-01^
- Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB) - Verisign www.verisign.com, retrieved 2022-03-05^
- .com TLD Information www.interserver.net, retrieved 2022-03-05^