Cape Verde, the West African island country, has found unusual potential in its internet domain which it recently opened for registrations from anywhere in the world.
The domain has the same acronym used in the world’s most widely spoken languages to refer to a professional résumé or curriculum vitae: the CV. Thus, reports Portuguese-language news service Lusa, the expectation is that from now on, internet addresses will be created by many services linked to CVs and professions, ending in ‘cv’ and allowing Cape Verde to make the most of this digital asset via the global market for curriculum vitae and recruitment services.
The ‘.cv’ domains are on sale from 1,000 escudos (around US$9.9) through the olacv.com portal, via Olacv, a Cape Verdean company linked to Nigerian web hosting company Whogohost, which has been awarded the management of the domain.
A concession contract was signed in July 2023 between regulator ARME and WhoGoHost. Olacv was created for this purpose. The primary server for the ‘.cv’ domain remains in Cape Verde, under the aegis of ARME.
Whether this serendipitous domain name really will be a boost for the country in the digital sphere remains to be seen. Currently, the ‘.cv’ domain has 3,500 registrations, mainly associated with organisations based in Cape Verde, but the hope is to achieve exponential growth globally, given a worldwide labour force of 3.3 billion people.
This will, however, involve contacting the world’s largest domain registration companies to include Cape Verdean domains in the listings they provide to those looking for names for their online businesses or other sites. A focus on the email service – personal addresses ‘hanging’ on domains ending in ‘.cv’ – is another option.
Edna Oliveira, Cape Verde’s Minister of State Modernisation and Public Administration, reportedly registered the ‘.cv’ domain with her name during a demonstration at the recent launch ceremony.
