A recent YouGov survey has revealed that approximately 25% of surveyed London businesses are interested in acquiring London’s very own domain extension “.london”. The .london domain was generated in 2013 by ICANN along with thousands of other new generic top level domains (gTLDs) like .photography, .technology, .clothing and so on. In terms of city domains London were just narrowly beaten to the first city gTLD by Berlin (.berlin) and Vienna (.wien) but London has managed to stay ahead of New York (.nyc).
Any businesses or people in London looking to reserve a domain on the .London gTLD can do so from April 29th in a 3 month window. After the three month Window passes, so from late July, the .London domains will go live and companies can start putting their websites online. Trademarked companies will be the first in line to grab their .London gTLDs to prevent domain name “cybersquatting” (where third parties secure domain names that they know certain companies or people will want so they can charge them a substantial fee to hand the domain name over). If several competitors for the same .London domain exist then they will be expected to make a case to ICANN as to why they are entitled to it more than their competitors. If neither company can prove their need for the domain name then a simple “bidding war” will be used to decide the buyer. 2014 looks set to be a big year for the internet with all these new gTLDs arriving.
Image courtesy of Nigel Howard, Via T3
