.am

Introduced	26 August 1994
TLD type	Country code top-level domain
Status	Active
Registry	AMNIC
Sponsor	ISOC-AM (local chapter of Internet Society)
Intended use	Entities connected with  Armenia
Actual use	Primarily in Armenia and Artsakh; some domain hack use elsewhere, e.g. Instagr.am, and some use by AM radio stations
Registration restrictions	Some generic names reserved; registry reserves right to revoke registrations due to spam, obscenity, or other illegal or immoral activity
Structure	Registrations permitted directly at second level
Documents	AM TLD policy
Dispute policies	Not available
DNSSEC	yes
Registry website	AMNIC

.հայ

Introduced	2014
TLD type	Country code top-level domain
Status	Active
Sponsor	Internet Society of Armenia
Intended use	Entities connected with Armenia, domain names preferably using the Armenian alphabet

.am is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Armenia.

Regulation

The registry for .am is operated by ISOC-AM,^[1] the local chapter of the Internet Society.

Regulatory notes:

• Any person in the world can register a .am, .com.am, .net.am, .org.am domain for a fee.
• Each domain name is subject to review. Generally each review takes about 2 or 3 working days.
• Armenian law prohibits its domain names from being used for spam, pornography, or terrorism sites.^[2]
• The AM-NIC was moved over to IPv6 address compatibility in line with the global DNS system.
• Unicode compatible names will not be instituted at AM-NIC until all issues related to IPv6 are resolved.

Usage in domain hacks

Domains within the .am ccTLD enjoy popularity due to the connection to AM radio (similar to the .fm and .tv ccTLDs), and the ability to form English words ending in "am" — e.g. the mobile photo sharing service Instagram uses the Armenian domain name Instagr.am. The live video streaming service Stre.am uses the TLD to form their operative keyword, "Stream". American music artist and producer will.i.am uses the domain for his website. Such unconventional usage of TLDs in domain names are called domain hacks.

Second top-level domain

In 2014 a new Armenian top-level domain name was added, intended for Armenian language domain names. The TLD is .հայ, (“hy”) from the ethnonym for Armenian). It launched in 2016.