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It’s official: London to seek .london gTLD
Kevin Murphy,
September 22, 2011, 16:22:42 (UTC),
Domain Registries
The official promotional agency for the city of London has formally declared its interest in applying to ICANN for a .london generic top-level domain.
I reported the story for The Register yesterday, and the official press release was sent out this afternoon, but it appears that I was misinformed about the issuance of a Request for Proposals.
According to London & Partners, at the moment it is only analyzing the potential costs and benefits, as well as consulting with local stakeholders.
The agency said in its press release:
In addition to enhancing the promotion of the capital, London & Partners is investigating what opportunities the ownership of the gTLD licence could bring in terms of harnessing commercial revenue streams and new job creation, whilst ensuring value for money.
It’s been backed by the office of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London.
Two UK registries, Nominet and CentralNic, have already thrown their hats in the ring as likely bidders if and when an RFP is released.
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I’m not surprised. I suspect that many large cities will apply for their own .CityName.
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I like .london
Sounds good and looks good on branding.
Sydney lord mayor should apply for .sydney
It will be interesting to see if it’s viable, it would be a shame if it results in a costly exercise and the names are simply perceived as vanity names.
On first looks, without serious innovation it seems difficult to see where the bulk registration numbers will come from beyond the obvious premium names.
mycompanyname.com/.co.uk is a a lot more usable than mycompanyname.london especially for anyone whose business extends beyond London.
Once you get outside the centre area I’m not sure there is the same sense of real world community ties as in say the successful .cat since many of the people travel into “London” even from places like Croydon, Richmond or Ilford.
I’m not so sure. I live in London, and I frequently see storefronts advertising absolutely rubbish domain names.
I’ve seen .gb.coms, .uk.coms, and even one .ltd.co.uk, which isn’t even a proper public suffix.
There are tens of thousands of potential small business registrants, I would guess.
Expectations will have to be managed, but I think city gTLDs in general could do quite well.