Two-letter TLDs are reserved for countries. IANA has a slightly more generous definition of country than the UN, but they're still not generally available. Definitely a nerd status symbol if you can get your hands on one!
Honestly that was a bad decision and it's time to end it.
Nobody uses those for their intended "national country" use. .io and .ai are tech-focused, .tv pretty much only has tv stations or video providers on it and so on.
Most countries except the USA have their local domain in general usage.
Even the "hacks".
Search "site:.ai Anguilla" for examples. You obviously be little reason to visit websites of Anguillan restaurants, government, telecoms, tourism etc but they exist.
Within Anguilla it's a small signal of a local business.
> Nobody uses those for their intended "national country" use.
Most of them do? I'm sure most .fr or .jp properties are operating in the French or Japanese markets. A handful of them (mostly the ones you list) have become trendy in other niches or provide opportunities for puns.
