Los Angeles - the first metropole with its own domain

By Hans-Peter Oswald
Posted Friday, November 19, 2004

Cologne, October 10. ICANN Registrar Secura announces today, that it is accepting registrations of la-domains (https://www.domainregistry.de/la-domains.html).

Los Angeles has a new honor to celebrate - becoming the world's first city to have its own unique internet address .la

Offering the same functionality as a .com address and sanctioned by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the internet's de facto governing body, .la addresses will be available to all Los Angeles residents and businesses.

Well known brand names such as (http://www.yahoo.la) and (www.rolex.la) and in this City of Stars many personal names like (www.madonna.la) and (www.arnie.la) are already registered. Independent forecasts suggest up to one million .la names will be registered over the coming years, as L.A. has over 300,000 registered businesses and 10 million citizens. Plus, there are many millions more worldwide who identify with the LA and Hollywood lifestyle.

The Guernsey-based LA Names Corporation (LA Names) has recently assumed responsibility as the operator of .la in a long-term deal with LANIC, a department of the Government of the Lao PDR, who were originally assigned
the name by ICANN.

Gavin Aldred, President of LA Names, said: "There is still a massive demand for good web-addresses, and Los Angeles is probably the most internet-savvy city on earth. For businesses operating in LA a .la address is much more relevant than a .com address because it tells a potential customer not just who you are but where you are, enabling them to find you, visit you, and buy from you. For individual citizens it's more a matter of pride to be part of
this extraordinary community."

In order to provide fast, reliable and secure infrastructure and technology, LA Names is working with Dublin-based global domain name registry services provider Afilias Limited, who also provide back-end registry support for .org, .INFO and a number of other ccTLDs.

CEO ICANN Registrar Secura since 1992

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