.NYC Registry Update: Eligibility & Availability

nyc registryThe .NYC new gTLD extension is one of my favorites, and I think it has an excellent chance of being one of the most successful new domain name extensions. NYC / New York City is a brand in and of itself, and I believe there are enough people and businesses that will want to increase their connection with the City through a domain name. The City of New York is partnering with Neustar, who will manage and operate the .NYC domain registry.

Unfortunately for me, it doesn’t look like I am going to be able to purchase a .NYC domain name now that I no longer live in Manhattan (or anywhere NYC for that matter). According to a newsletter that was sent to subscribers by the .NYC registry today, .NYC domain names will only be available to purchase by “An entity or organization with a physical street address in the City, or An individual whose primary place of residence is in the City.”

I imagine there will be local companies offering to register domain names on behalf of entities that don’t meet these eligibility requirements, but I probably wouldn’t be comfortable owning domain names in this manner.

In addition to the eligibility update, the .NYC registry also shared on update on availability. Listed below, are the four phases and dates of availablity to buy .NYC domain names.

Phase 1 (May): Sunrise
This is the initial period for the owners of federally registered trademarks to register their matching .nyc domain name before names are available to the general public. If there are more than one application competing for the same domain name, an auction will determine the registrant.

Phase 2 (June/July): City Government Affiliated
City government and government-affiliated NYC entities will get to register .nyc domains through a City-designated single point of contact.

Phase 3 (August): Landrush begins
All businesses, organizations and residents with a physical address in the City will get equal opportunity to register .nyc domains for a slightly higher fee than in the General Availability phase (see Phase 4 below). If there are multiple applications for a domain name, an auction will determine the registrant.

Phase 4 (October): General Availability
Following the Landrush phase, all businesses, organizations and residents with a physical address in the City of New York will get to register .nyc domain names in real-time on a first-come, first-served basis.

For more information, visit the .NYC registry website.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

19 COMMENTS

  1. I wonder if registrars will be allowed to offer some type of trustee service for .NYC registrations for those who live outside of the city?

  2. I am a proponent of the physical address restrictions.
    It ensures that the domains WILL be used — and it increases the likelihood that a NY business will be able to secure the name they want, when the time is right.

    With all of the gTLD rollouts, it’s obvious that domainers are buying all of the word combinations that actually make sense:

    DSLR.camera
    Future.technology
    Mountain.bike

    The gTLD program was supposed to ensure that EVERYONE could receive the domain they wanted. In reality, domainers are going to buy all the good word combinations and end users are back to square one:
    Punching in ideas at GoDaddy only to find out that everything is taken.

    Try to register something that makes sense in .bike or .technology. Everything’s already gobbled up. Imagine, in 5 more years, what the options will be for that small business wanting a good .bike name.

    But, this .NYC restriction somewhat helps remedy that situation. At least most of the .NYC domains will be used — as opposed to becoming a parked page wasteland as most of the gTLD word combinations (that make sense) will be.

    Of course, domainers in NYC could snap up all of the good names themselves.

    • “as opposed to becoming a parked page wasteland as most of the gTLD word combinations (that make sense) will be”

      Those are generally generics. Since you appear someone with a democratic soul you should understand their first use would be advertising open to all.

      Parking pages became waste pages due to your “friend” google, which partnered….with all parking companies (today they are friend of you like all others nGTLDs regiers, today they will screw you).

  3. Every registry can run their business as seen fit. That’s the beauty of the new gTLDs: they create products and brands, versus simple URL forwarders.

    I foresee an increase in the rental of NYC PO boxes though 😀

    • Wording seems to imply a PO BOX would be invalid:

      “An entity or organization with a physical street address in the City, or An individual whose primary place of residence is in the City.”

  4. Unfortunately like many Gtlds, .NYC will be gamed and the best prefixes awarded to domainers. This being NYC, I see the sh*t hitting the fan as it rightly should.

    Where did you move to if I may ask?

  5. I decided to let a really great newyork**.com go a while back while “culling the flock” as I saw Frank Schilling put it recently and boy did I regret it. Still have one of the best examplenyc.com’s; the example.nyc version is almost certain to wind up in a big $ auction. Still have a few good newyork**.com’s one of which someone out of the blue offered $x,xxx for a while ago, but I think it’s worth $xx,xxx…

  6. I decided to let a really great newyork**.com go a while back while “cull[ing] the flock” as I saw Frank Schilling put it recently and boy did I regret it. Still have one of the best examplenyc.com’s; the example.nyc version is almost certain to be one of the most wanted and wind up in a big $ auction. Still have a few good newyork**.com’s one of which someone out of the blue offered $x ,x x x for a while ago, but I think it’s worth $x x , x x x…and I’m not in the business of selling domains like the illustrious visitors of this blog, though as I’ve said before it would be nice to make a few nice sales anyway…all were gems regged for end user use originally…God willing, time will tell…

  7. I think availability of physical address for this ccCityTLD as a limitation. Also, it’s widely believed that most of the US businesses are .com oriented and not .us which may prove detrimental to .NYC’s greater adaptability.

  8. USA is a brand as well and look at where the .US extension is today, which is managed by no other than “Neustar”, who also restricts .US.

    Reg count? As of 12/2013; 1.8 Million US Registrations according to Hosterstats http://www.hosterstats.com/DomainNameCounts2013.php

    I can honestly see many businesses in NYC acquiring the GTLD, but if their name is taken don’t expect them to pay inflated domainer prices, that’s NOT going to happen, especially for a city TLD with a population 400 times less than the US population.

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