A vibrant, exciting and modern city with an incomparable history, Berlin is a hub of central Europe. Berlin has become an international cultural attraction point and the hub of several German the creative industries.
With a .berlin top level domain individuals, organizations and companies in Berlin will be able to register their own web address with the ending .berlin and use its worldwide fame to support new business opportunities and to demonstrate their identity and the ties to their hometown in a unprecedented way.
ICANN will only allow a company to operate a .berlin if it has the official support or non-objection of the city of Berlin. The city of Berlin has not yet decided whether it will support, or not object to the creation of a Berlin domain. Currently there are two competing efforts that aim to operate the top level domain .berlin, providing the city with different concepts to chose from when making a decision that is in the best interest of the city.
Two groups known to be seeking Berlin’s blessing to move forward with a .berlin application:
The Unite Berlin initiative by Minds + Machines GmbH (www.uniteberlin.de) has recently announced its plans to apply for the top-level domain .berlin. The Unite Berlin Initiative uses its own registry software, Espresso/CoCCA, which is currently running more than 20 country code top level domains. The software enables the Unite Berlin Intiative to offer domains to Berliners at a cost comparable to a .de address.
The company dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG (www.dotberlin.de) was the first to announce its intention to pursue .berlin. In order to enable community representation, dotBERLIN encourages organizations in Berlin to become limited shareholders of the company.
