Caribbean island could earn $30 million from AI; to understand

The island of Anguilla in the Caribbean region, They can earn up to US$30 million (R$148 million at current exchange rate) in domain name registration fees this year. This is equivalent to: More than triple what was achieved in 2021. The significant increase in turnover has to do with the explosion in artificial intelligence (AI) since the launch of ChatGPT.

As highlighted by Bloomberg last Friday (31), The UK territory has the domain “.ai”identifies websites in the country, in the same way as “.br”, which serves as a reference for pages based in Brazil. But “AI” is also an abbreviation for artificial intelligence.

Companies operating in this segment and wishing to have an Internet address with such identification must pay the Anguilla government to use the domain name. So income that could represent 10% of the Caribbean island’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2023.

Here are a few examples of tech giants using the domain name on their pages: microsoft.ai, google.ai This facebook.ai. Character.ai, Stability.ai, and X.ai are some of the other platforms that pay for shortening.

How much does a .ai domain name cost?

Vince Cate, who oversees Anguilla’s .ai domain, told the publication that the number of registrations had doubled by 2022 to 287,432 sites. And growth continued in the first few months of this year in the face of the ever-increasing use of productive AI.

Ada earned approximately US$7.4 million (R$36.7 million) in 2021 with fees. The initial forecast for 2023 was for cautious growth around US$8.3 million (R$41.1 million), but heavy demand for the service led the local government to calculate revenue of up to US$30 million at year-end. year.

The usage fee for the domain name can vary, but registrars like GoDaddy and NameCheap pay a fixed price to the Anguilla government. US$140 (R$694) per registration for two years. The fee has increased recently, and before that it cost $120.