On July 1, 2006, .im registration was made available to anyone in the world, including one, two, and three letter domains directly under .im, which opens up the possibility of .im domain hacks. The domain is becoming popular with companies who produce instant messaging software with names registered by Pidgin, Yahoo! Messenger, Meebo, Coccinella, Trillian, and portal.im among others. The abundance of available short names is also making the domain popular for personal use.
Currently, domain registrations cost £40.00 per year for domains of three letters or more, although they can be purchased more cheaply through resellers. Premium domains with two character names are available for £495.00, and premium domains with one character names are available for £995.00.