GoDaddy to rebrand and Market .la Web addresses to Los Angeles firms

Godaddy and CentralNic are apparently taking the upcoming new gTLD launch as an opportunity to re-brand .LA in the same light as other cities that have backed new gTLD applications including New York City’s .NYC, Miami’s application for .Miami

GoDaddy, the world’s largest domain registrar, will kick off a marketing campaign Monday to rebrand .la as the Web suffix for Los Angeles.

The Scottsdale, Ariz., company believes geographical-based Web addresses are the next big thing for its sales of Internet domain names, and .la will be the first Web suffix, or top-level domain, GoDaddy markets in this way.

Web addresses using the .la suffix have been available for purchase since the late 1990s, but GoDaddy, which sells more than 50% of new domain-name registrations, didn’t add it to its catalog until June 20, after partnering with CentralNic, the company that handles the database for .la Web addresses.

Once GoDaddy begins marketing the suffix on Monday, it expects .la sales to explode.

“When we carry a TLD [top-level domain], it moves the needle,” said GoDaddy’s Rich Merdinger, vice president of domains.

Later this year, more Web addresses using city-based suffixes may become available after they are approved by the organization that governs domain addresses. Already, New York City has announced that .nyc Web addresses will become available to its residents later this year, and other cities are vying to receive their own suffixes.

But GoDaddy is able to sell .la addresses now because the suffix is actually the one assigned to the country of Laos. Each country has its own Web suffix — the U.S., for example, has .us — and these top-level domains have been around for decades. read more