geoTLD

What are geoTLDs?

A geoTLD is a type of Top-Level Domain (TLD) in the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS). The DNS was developed to facilitate navigating over the Internet by introducing human-readable and meaningful labels, the domain names.

A TLD is a domain at the highest level of the DNS, and is represented by the letter-combination ‘after the dot’ in a domain name. For example, the .com or .info at the end of a website or email address.

geoTLDs are a type of TLDs that are intended to serve a geographic place, language or culture. They include:

  • Geographic names such as .berlin, .barcelona, or .africa
  • Geographic identifiers such as .nyc (New York) or .frl (Friesland)
  • Names of geographic origin such as .irish or .gal (Galicia)

geoTLDs belong to the category of generic top-level domains (gTLDs), and should not be confused with ccTLDs that represent countries by their official territory code.  geoTLDs are intended to serve a geographic place, language or culture. They also include Internationalized Domain Names (IDN), that allow different languages to use their own character sets. For example, geoTLDs now include ابوظبي (Abu Dhabi) and 广东 (Guangdong Province, China).

Why a geoTLD?

Meaning
A geoTLD expresses identity in a positive way, building on civic pride to provide a platform that brings people together around shared experiences. It is a way for those charged with developing and promoting a city, region or community to showcase everything that is best about their home.

For example, the Scottish Government, the devolved government for Scotland, has migrated its entire web presence to www.gov.scot. Scotland has embraced .scot as central to the government’s online identity, and also to renew and sustain Scotland’s strong connections with its global diaspora.

Opportunity

A geoTLD provides a common platform for promoting everything a place or community has to offer. A geoTLD like www.skygarden.london lets local businesses target customers while reaching out to the world. Similarly, www.theater.koeln is a resource for visitors and residents of Koeln, Germany, helping to bring theatre-goers to plays they would like to see.

Branding and identity

A geoTLD is fast becoming a key tool for place and community-based branding and communications.  A place or community with its own top level domain creates a common platform to promote tourism, one-off and ongoing events, and educational, business and cultural establishments.

A geoTLD will build and amplify your core brand values by helping to ensure that the activities and businesses found on it are relevant and up to date. www.mozart.wien is a multi-lingual website with a simple and memorable address that builds on visitors’ interest in the world-famous composer to provide up to date information about Vienna-based concerts, tours and more.

Trust
A geoTLD is a reliable way to digitally deliver trustworthy public services to residents. Municipalities and regional government bodies use their geoTLD to ensure that residents, businesses and other organisations accessing services can trust who they are doing business with. www.archives.nyc is the official address of New York City’s public archive, the Department of Records & Information Service. It provides a valuable and ongoing service of making the city’s archival records available, allowing anyone to share in and build on New York’s rich, historic legacy.
Usability

geoTLDs are intuitive. Internet users immediately grasp what www.escaperoom.sydney  is for. So do search engines, which can help with search rankings and drive relevant traffic. As the Internet becomes fragmented and distributed across a range of devices and formats, geoTLDs help users to find and have confidence in the specific content and services they are looking for.

Small to medium enterprises, the engines of job creation, are often crowded out of existing top level domains because their names are already registered. With a geoTLD, new organisations can use their name in a domain that is both memorable and relevant to customers. Paris, thought by many to be the best place outside Lebanon for Lebanese cuisine, now hosts www.libshop.paris, a start-up Lebanese food company. The new business registered its short and catchy name and now attracts customers from across Paris and its suburbs to use an exciting new delivery service.

Community

geoTLDs forge the link between geographic and community affiliation to new and meaningful identities in the digital world. www.eitb.eus celebrates the identity and global availability of the regional Basque television channel, providing regional news and programming in the Basque language.

As cities and regions now compete for skills, investment and tourism, geoTLDs help them to use their best assets – the energy, pride and distinctive qualities of their people, companies and cultural institutions – to present themselves to the world.

geoTLDs
in the world

Discover a world full of possibilities!

  • .abudhabi (the city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates )
  • .africa (the African continent)
  • .alsace (the Alsace region, France )
  • .amsterdam (the city of Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
  • .arab (the United Arab Emirates )
  • .barcelona (the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain)
  • .bayern (the region of Bayern, Germany)
  • .berlin (the city of Berlin, Germany)
  • .boston (the city of Boston, USA)
  • .brussels (the Brussels region, Belgium)
  • .budapest (the city of Budapest, Hungary )
  • .bzh (the region of Brittany, France)
  • .capetown (the city of Cape Town, South Africa)
  • .cat (the Catalan language community)
  • .cologne (the city of Köln/Cologne, Germany)
  • .corsica (the region of Corsica, France)
  • .cymru (the region of Wales, United Kingdom)
  • .desi (the global Desi Community)
  • .dubai (the city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates)
  • .durban (the city of Durban, South Africa)
  • .eus (the Basque language and culture)
  • .frl (the region of Friesland, the Netherlands)
  • .gal (the Galician region and culture)
  • .gent (the city of Gent, Belgium)
  • .hamburg (the Hamburg metropolitan region, Germany)
  • .helsinki (the city of Helsinki, Finland)
  • .irish (the Irish Language and culture)
  • .ist (the Istanbul metropolitan region, Turkey)
  • .istanbul (the Istanbul metropolitan region, Turkey)
  • .joburg (the city of Johannesburg, South Africa)
  • .koeln (the city of Köln/Cologne, Germany)
  • .krd (the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Iraq)
  • .kyoto (the city of Kyoto, Japan)
  • .lat (the Latin American communities)
  • .london (the city of London, United Kingdom)
  • .madrid (the city of Madrid, Spain )
  • .melbourne (the city of Melbourne, Australia)
  • .miami (the city of Miami, United States)
  • .moscow (the city of Moscow, Russian Federation)
  • .nagoya (the city of Naygoya, Japan)
  • .nrw (the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany )
  • .nyc (the city of New York, United States )
  • .okinawa (the city of Okinawa, Japan)
  • .osaka (the city of Oskaka, Japan)
  • .paris (the city of Paris, France )
  • .quebec (the Québec province, Canada)
  • .rio (the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
  • .ruhr (the Ruhr area ‘Ruhrgebiet’, Germany)
  • .ryukyu (the Ryukyu islands, Japan)
  • .saarland (the state of Saarland, Germany)
  • .scot (Scotland and Scottish culture)
  • .stockholm (the city of Stockholm, Sweden)
  • .swiss (The Sovereign Confederation of Switzerland)
  • .sydney (the city of Sydney, Australia)
  • .taipei (Taipei City Government)
  • .tatar (the Tatar language and culture)
  • .tirol (the state of Tirol, Austria)
  • .tokyo (the city of Tokyo, Japan)
  • .vegas (the city of Las Vegas, United States)
  • .vlaanderen (the Flemish region, Belgium)
  • .wales (the region of Wales, United Kingdom)
  • .wien (the city of Vienna/Wien, Austria)
  • .yokohama (the city of Yokohama, Japan)
  • .zuerich (the Canton of Zürich, Switzerland)
  • .москва (the city of Moscow, Russian Federation )
  • .ابوظبي (the city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates )
  • .عرب (the United Arab Emirates )
  • .广州 / .guangdong (the Guangdong province, China)
  • 佛山 / .fohsan (the city of Fohsan, China)
  • 广东 / .guangzhou (the city of Guangzhou, China)

overview of geoTLDs operated by geoTLD.group Members

see the Members Map

Geotld Group