According to an article on InformationWeek, the city of New York has selected Virginia-based Neustar to apply for and manage the .NYC gTLD. InformationWeek’s source is Nicholas Sbordone, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. According to its website, Neustar currently provides registry services for .biz, .us, kids.us, .co, .cn, .tw, .travel, and .tel.
Terms of the deal between Neustar and the New York City government can be found in the InformationWeek article. One interesting aspect, and not all that surprising, is that people and businesses who wish to own a .NYC domain name will need to have an address or presence in NYC.
There were at least three New York City based groups that also appeared to be competing for the .NYC registry. dotNYC LLC, led by industry veteran and gTLD expert Antony Van Couvering (with an endorsement from former Mayor Ed Koch), Connecting.nyc Inc., and The .NYC Domain Extension. I am not sure how far along in negotiations each group went with the City.
I will probably try and buy at least a couple .NYC domain names when they become available, depending on the registration fee of course.
Neustar’s marketing for .biz, .tel etc. left a lot to be desired. On the other hand, the .co extension has been superbly promoted. Not sure how they would approach .nyc
I suppose LA doesn’t need its own gTLD because of the already existing .la ccTLD?
@Puranjay
.CO has been promoted by CoInternet, Neustar proved they can’t promote their extensions at all (see .us and .biz).
Neustar had a deal with TLDH for geo and city tlds.
I wonder if there may still be an announcement from TLDH forthcoming.
Would expect that very soon if TLDH is involved.