A key milestone on the road to the .cat domain

The .cat domain did not appear overnight. Its creation was the result of years of work, collaboration and a collective mobilisation that was quite unusual in the history of the Internet.

Before .cat existed, before domains could be registered or the first websites began to appear, there was a long and complex process to make possible an idea that, at the time, seemed unlikely: that a linguistic and cultural community could have its own domain on the Internet.

One of the most decisive milestones along this path took place on March 16, 2004.

On that day, the .cat domain application was officially submitted to ICANN, the international organization responsible for coordinating the global domain name system. The proposal was presented through the Associació puntCAT, which had been created specifically to promote the project.

The application stood out for one element that made it unique: its social support.

An unprecedented mobilisation

The project gathered the explicit support of 98 entities and associations, 2,615 companies and 65,468 individuals from all Catalan-speaking territories. It was an unprecedented mobilisation in the field of Internet domains: no other application had previously achieved such a broad base of support.

That step did not yet mean having the domain, but it did start the process that would eventually make it possible.

After a long evaluation period, ICANN officially approved the .cat domain on September 16, 2005, making it the first domain in the world created to represent a linguistic and cultural community.

A few months later, on April 23, 2006 — coinciding with the celebration of Sant Jordi — the public registration of the .cat domain opened to the entire Catalan-speaking community. From that moment on, companies, organizations, institutions and individuals could start using .cat to establish their own presence on the Internet.

Twenty years building the Internet in Catalan

Today, almost twenty years after that moment, the .cat domain is a well-established reality with more than 117,000 registered domains.

Reaching this point has been possible thanks to the work of many people over the years, but above all thanks to a community that has embraced .cat and used it to build projects, companies, and cultural, educational and social initiatives on the Internet.

In 2026, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the .cat domain, we have set ourselves a special goal: reaching 120,000 .cat domains.

It is an ambitious milestone, but we believe it is achievable. In recent years, the .cat domain has maintained steady growth, and we are approaching this anniversary with enthusiasm and with several initiatives that we will share throughout the year.

Reaching 120,000 .cat domains would be an excellent way to celebrate two decades of history.

Because .cat has always been exactly that: a community project.

And its future — like its origin — will continue to depend on all the people, organizations and projects that choose to write their story on the Internet with a .cat at the end of their address.