In the spring of 2019, ICANN approved the Vanuatu government’s application for .VU redelegation as a common domain area. According to Domain Incite, nine companies vied for the position of technical operator necessary for the .VU domain. Eventually, Neustar was selected as .VU domain area administrator.
Anybody, regardless of their place of residence, can register a domain in the .VU area. Formerly, the cost of domains in .VU was equal to about $50. It is interesting to note that a domain name in .VU could be purchased for cash directly in the Telecom Vanuatu Limited office, its former domain operator.
Actually, there is no publicly available information on the .VU area, including the number of registered domains. Vanuatu is a comparatively young country, which was granted independence by France and Great Britain in 1980. The population is about 272,000. So the number of domain names in .VU is probably low; at any rate, much fewer than in the other domains administered by Neustar: .US, .BIZ, .CO and the Indian domain .IN recently provided to Neustar for servicing.
Neustar says the domain will be under its management by September 30.
