As a huge machine shouldering the livelihood of thousands of people, each country has its own way of generating income. They either focus on the development of "high-end" fields such as science and technology, industry, and commerce, and come out on top in the global market; or they devote themselves to agriculture, processing and manufacturing, and become a chain in the world economic cycle, making continuous progress to earn added value.
We are accustomed to using words such as "major processing country" and "industrial power" to describe the strengths of a certain country. Through these descriptions, we can understand the position of this country in global production, and then judge its economic direction and whether it is strong or not. .
But what is interesting is that there are always some small countries that have broken away from these ordinary standards and evaluation systems, and also "disdain" to sell common products and services, but instead take a slant on the way of economic income generation and play the idea of luck.
Laws such as "comprehensive development planning" and "coordinated linkage of the three major industries" required to run a country are all invalid in front of them - relying on some "good luck", they sell magical "products"; they carry a little "good opportunity" , people here yearn for good luck to come for a long time.
"Good Luck"
Nowadays, "surfing" in the Internet and entering the complete URL at will to log in to a website is nothing new. If you have paid attention to the composition of these URLs, especially the similar suffixes, you will find some rules: for example, those URLs with the ".cn" suffix that we often use are domain names belonging to China; for example, some relatively international websites or company official websites , will use a suffix such as ".com".
These domain names representing regions are called "top-level domains", which were assigned by international organizations at the beginning of the Internet era according to the international standard ISO3166 - most of them are based on the abbreviation of the English name of the region.
Stamps of Tuvalu
Tuvalu transfers the authorization and use rights of domain names at a price of US$5 million per year.
These domain names assigned to various countries or regions, like unique ID cards, are also "invisible territories" that fully belong to the region. The country that owns the domain name has the right to manage all the second-level domain names above the top-level domain name, whether Registration, deletion, modification, recycling... A series of operations are controlled by the country, which is somewhat similar to the name of each of us and the attribution rights derived from it.
However, although they have the only right to speak their own name, it is probably difficult for anyone to want to sell their name for a living, except for a small remote country - Tuvalu.
Tuvalu's natural resources are scarce, and the only thing that can "borrow light" is the endless ocean
Located in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean, Tuvalu has a small population and land area. About 10,000 people live on 26 square kilometers of land. All kinds of natural resources are very scarce. The only thing that can "borrow light" is the endless ocean. Tuvaluans basically make a living by fishing and barely "eat by the sea". They are one of the least developed countries in the world "officially certified" by the United Nations. In 1995, like all countries, Tuvalu was assigned the domain name ".tv" abbreviated as the country name "Tuvalu".
Since then, Tuvalu has embarked on this peculiar path of becoming rich by chance. Because the suffix of ".tv" is easily reminiscent of the English abbreviation of TV, it is both meaningful and easy to be remembered by customers. A British company called "Idealab" first approached the door, hoping to spend money to buy the right to use the suffix from Tuvalu. After some bargaining, Tuvalu finally transferred the authorization and use rights of the domain name at a price of US$5 million per year.
This costless and consistent annual income of US$5 million, while not "getting rich" for many countries, is for small Tuvalu it accounts for 50% of the country's annual gross domestic product. About 1/10 is enough to make some earth-shaking changes in his extremely embarrassed life.
Relying on the "sea" of television and the Internet, Tuvalu has exchanged ".tv" for a happy life. In the past, there was no money to develop education and train children. This time, with the income from selling domain names, Tuvalu built two new primary schools in one go. In the past, because of "the country's weak words" and the inability to pay membership fees, Tuvalu has been lingering outside the door of the United Nations. It is a passerby who has been forgotten by the rules of the international game. This time, with a stable income, Tuvalu immediately paid tens of thousands of dollars and became the 189th member of the United Nations in 2000.
Good luck always favors Tuvalu. In the wave of rise and fall of many Internet languages, fashionable words and their derived acronyms, ".tv" has always stood at the forefront, flexibly shuttled between slightly retro TV programs and current fashionable live media, The abbreviations are endless, and their meanings are endless. In recent years, video sites and live streaming sites have been booming, and the demand for ".tv" has continued to grow.
This year, the U.S. company that has been in charge of operating the ".tv" domain name for many years will end its contract with Tuvalu. At the moment when the video industry blows out, a new node is ushered in, and the future ".tv" will naturally seek future prices.
Will Tuvalu take advantage of the popularity of global video, increase the price of the next contract to sell ".tv", build more schools and realize more "international dreams" by relying on ".tv", and even, Join the ranks of rich countries? We will wait and see.
"Pies"
It's not just Tuvalu that makes a fortune selling domain names. Behind those interesting, easy-to-associate domain names, there is always something like a "windfall" deal. For example, the domain name ".me", because it has the same meaning as the English "I", is valued and purchased by many personal websites. It comes from the Republic of Montenegro and is the abbreviation of its English country name Montenegro.
The domain name ".nu", which is the same as the Swedish word for "now", is an excellent choice for Swedes to apply for a website domain name. Who doesn't want to use this suffix as a suffix for their website, and get a "go now" experience the moment the user hits the keyboard?
This domain name comes from Niue, a small country in the central and southern Pacific Ocean, and is the abbreviation of its English country name Niue. However, in the early years, Niueans did not realize that this was actually a business, and it was transferred to an American editor for free. So now, the Niue government is losing nearly 100 million US dollars in domain name authorization and transfer fees every year. They are going to court with American editors, looking forward to one day, like Tuvalu and Montenegro, relying on domain names to increase their poor and weak countries by one. Wealth power.
If selling domain names is "selling random luck", then the next Pacific island country named Nauru can be said to have really made a fortune from the "pie" that fell from the sky.
Located in the central Pacific Ocean, Nauru is the smallest island country in the world with a land area of only 21.1 square kilometers. It is a country rather than an independent coral island.
Surrounded by the sea, the land area is small, and the climate is rainy tropical rain forest climate. These "configurations" are terrible. Not only is it difficult to develop any industry, but even drinking water is a big problem. Surrounded by oceans and without rivers, residents rely on imports for drinking water. Importing is another problem that costs people and money. The nearest land to Nauru is also 300 kilometers away.
However, perhaps it is precisely because of the remoteness and loneliness of this "independence" that little Nauru has become a harbor for seabirds flying across the ocean to rest and anchor. Here, they recuperate from the hardships of the journey, multiply and rest before setting off - and then leave a thick layer of bird droppings on the land of Nauru. At one point, guano covered three-fifths of Nauru's territory, more than 10 meters at its thickest point.
At one point, Nauru's per capita income was as high as $15,000 by mining and selling guano resources that turned into phosphate.
Guano itself is not unusual, but Nauru was originally a "coral island" composed of a whole coral reef. The Nauru land whose main component is calcium carbonate and the sea bird guano rich in phosphorus have undergone a wonderful chemical reaction to form a precious phosphate, which is not only a natural high-quality fertilizer, but also an indispensable and important part of the pharmaceutical and other industries. element.
With the exploitation and sale of guano resources, which have been turned into phosphates, Nauru's national annual income was once more than 120 million US dollars, and its per capita income was once as high as 15,000 US dollars, almost entering the ranks of developed countries.
Long-term "meal tickets"?
Can good luck and "pie" from heaven sustainably and stably nourish the entire country and its citizens?
People who are soaked in good luck may have a hard time thinking about whether they can last for a long time. In the case of Nauru, luck has come so easily, and its profits are so lucrative, that the locals are swarming, not wanting to think about the future. Now that phosphate is profitable enough, it is mined desperately and sold indiscriminately. The guano resources that have been hoarded for generations have been completely squandered in 30 years.
The resources were gone, and people initially thought it might be a small thing. After all, this resource is bird droppings. As long as there are birds here to inhabit, it may only be a matter of time before new resources are regenerated. But it seems naive to think so.
Phosphate mines in Nauru in 2007
The result of over-exploitation of phosphate is not only the loss of resources, but also the continuous reduction of the entire island of Nauru - guano may be endlessly regenerated, but this coral island is suspended at sea and will not grow again. This country, whose highest altitude is only 61 meters, has continued to decrease in altitude after the extensive exploitation of phosphates. Coupled with the general trend of global warming and sea level rise, Nauru is facing the risk of being submerged by seawater.
The destruction of the ecological environment also makes passing birds no longer stop. Those astonishing per capita incomes are a thing of the past, and Nauru as a whole had to receive aid from the Australian government in 2005.
What kind of aid is this? The Australian government has demanded the construction of a prison for refugees entering Australia illegally on Nauru's already cramped territory. This has undoubtedly turned Nauru into its own "spare land" and "garbage dump" to deal with sins and exile suffering.
So, relying on the "good luck" of selling the sky, and relying on "digital resources" that seem to never disappear - such as domain names, will you be able to sit back and relax?
Getting something for nothing may never be realistic. The continuation of ".tv" across technological development may be just accidental, and whether small abbreviations are sought after or not has much to do with themselves. In the future society, what kind of technology will be welcomed and what kind of things will be gradually eliminated? The lifeblood of these developments is still in the hands of countries that truly develop industry and seek technological breakthroughs and human limits.
And when you are complacent about the luck brought by the English abbreviation of a country name, you should not forget where it comes from—whether or not the domain name is owned, sold or appreciated is determined by whether the country's sovereignty is in the hands of the country itself.
The Chagos Islands have a very modern suffix ".io" when assigning domain names. It can make users in the Internet age think of input/output, think of 1 and 0 in binary, and think of some funny emoji.
Originally, both the archipelago and the domain name should belong to Mauritius. However, since 1814, the United Kingdom has occupied these islands, carried out ethnic cleansing on the aborigines, and established military bases. Therefore, this domain name with infinite meaning and high gold content belongs to the United Kingdom, not Mauritius.
Today, Mauritius is constantly trying to get back the domain name and the lost homeland behind the domain name, but this process is extremely difficult.
Good luck should be appreciated, and "Godsend" should be fully utilized. But squandering good luck cannot survive long years. For a country, having its own invincible characteristics and abilities may be a more powerful weapon than praying for good luck.
