The history and development of the .com domain

Introduction

.com is a generic top-level domain. The original DNS design specified it for commercial-related domains, and the first .com registration was symbolics.com in March 1985.RFC 920 VeriSign’s historical release

Name and original use

RFC 920, an October 1984 policy statement of the IAB and DARPA, listed COM among the initial category-based top-level domains and defined it as the commercial category.RFC 920 This was the namespace’s original purpose rather than a permanent eligibility rule. IANA’s current root-zone record classifies .com as a generic top-level domain and records January 1, 1985 as the TLD record’s registration date.IANA delegation record

The IANA date and the first domain registration are separate milestones. The root-zone entry uses January 1, 1985, while symbolics.com became the first registered .com domain on March 15, 1985.IANA delegation record VeriSign’s historical release

Development timeline

Date	Event
October 1984	RFC 920 documented COM as the commercial category in the initial set of top-level domains.RFC 920
January 1, 1985	IANA’s delegation record uses this date for .com.IANA delegation record
March 15, 1985	VeriSign records symbolics.com as the first .com registration.VeriSign’s historical release
2000	VeriSign’s company timeline says it acquired Network Solutions and became the registry for .com and .net.Verisign timeline
November 27, 2024	ICANN announced renewal of the .com Registry Agreement with VeriSign and noted new DNS abuse mitigation obligations.2024 ICANN renewal announcement

Registry and policy changes

IANA currently lists VeriSign Global Registry Services as the sponsoring organisation for .com.IANA delegation record The operator relationship is contractual rather than a statement that VeriSign created the suffix: VeriSign’s own timeline places its acquisition of Network Solutions and its assumption of the .com and .net registry roles in 2000.Verisign timeline

The November 2024 renewal kept VeriSign as the .com registry operator. ICANN said the renewed agreement incorporated provisions from recent base gTLD agreement amendments, including obligations concerning DNS abuse such as malware, botnets, phishing, pharming and spam used as a delivery mechanism.2024 ICANN renewal announcement This is a change in contractual obligations and oversight; it does not change the original category recorded for COM in RFC 920.RFC 920

Use and market development

The first .com registration predates the World Wide Web: symbolics.com was registered in 1985 by the computer manufacturer Symbolics.VeriSign’s historical release Over the following decades, .com moved far beyond its original category label and became a general-purpose address for companies, products and online services.

Related suffixes and concepts

.net and .org were part of the same early category-based DNS design: RFC 920 described .net for network-related domains and .org for other organizations.RFC 920