ccTLD for Email Can be Problematic

About 9 years ago, I sold a very nice .com domain name to a startup that used a ccTLD domain name. The CEO was not a shrewd negotiator, and in the course of our discussion about why he *needed* to buy my .com domain name, he told me about some of the issues he was having with his current domain name. The primary issue? Email.

Employees were having issues when they filled out forms and signed up for various accounts. Corporate emails from employees were also inadvertently being marked as spam by recipient email providers. This was in addition to confusion for consumers, but at that time, it seemed like the email issues plaguing the company were on the top of the CEO’s mind.

Knowing the ccTLD the company was using before acquiring my .com domain name, I am sure the email issue would have been rectified by now. It’s a non-issue at this point because the company was acquired.

At this point, with the proliferation of ccTLDs and alternative gTLDs being used around the world, one might think email would no longer be problematic for users of non .com domain names. Apparently, this is not the case, as one person shared on X.

Martin Amps, shared screenshots that show his Coinbase account has been restricted, reportedly due to using a .SO domain name for his email address at Coinbase. The second screenshot shows the concern is related to the ccTLD, as Coinbase compliance asked about family or friends from Somalia.

A few months now @coinbase has restricted my account because i have a .so domain for my email. Same email i signed up with 12 years ago, seemingly ignore my emails/evidence uploads pic.twitter.com/CTQVrkmcfY

— Martin Amps (@martinamps) August 24, 2024

There are quite a few startups that use a .SO domain name for their business without having a connection to the country of Somalia. Notion, for example, uses Notion.so for its website despite acquiring Notion.com. It is interesting that Coinbase flagged this user’s account because of the ccTLD domain name used for email.