The City of Johannesburg is soon to have its own domain name .joburg, following the success of the initial evaluation phase of the new Top Level Domains (gTLD) project.
The evaluation was carried out by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and .joburg now finds itself in a race with Durban and Cape Town to be the first South African city to get its own domain name.
“The ZA Domain Name Authority (ZADNA) welcomes the success of .joburg… The .joburg application was submitted by the ZA Central Registry (ZACR) alongside the .africa, .capetown and .durban applications,” said ZADNA in a statement.
ICANN is reportedly processing approximately 1,300 new gTLD applications, which are considered in the order allocated by the prioritisation draw, which was held in Los Angeles, United States, in December last year.
Position 303 was drawn by the .durban application, passing its initial evaluation in May this year while the .joburg application drew position 566, leaving the .capetown application last at position 761, which means the Mother City will have to wait.
“Jo’burg is a city with its own unique atmosphere and is undoubtedly Africa’s leading business and financial centre. It’s fitting that it should have its own domain name that companies and organisations can use to convey a distinct association with the city,” said Vika Mpisane, general manager of ZADNA.
Mpisane added: “Once the Cape Town initial evaluation is completed, we will be on our way to giving our three major cities a sound platform on which to market themselves.”
The Johannesburg metro municipality will reportedly be priority number one with the registration of the names for the city’s entities and programmes.
Entities such as Joburg Tourism, City of Johannesburg, City Power and others’ URLs will now feature .joburg.
“The .joburg project gives the City of Joburg many possibilities that will help us position the city as a tourist destination of choice for business and leisure. It aligns with our vision of taking the Joburg brand globally and marketing the city as a world class African City,” said Phelisa Mangcu, a representative of the City of Joburg.
