Two years ago, Berlin became the first city in the World to have its own TLD. The .BERLIN extension, designed to give Berliners an alternative to .DE and .COM, quickly gained popularity thanks in part to a five-day free domain name initiative. Three months after its launch, .BERLIN became the second largest new TLD in existence, after .XYZ.
Today, .BERLIN has around 60,000 active registrations and has been used by small and large companies alike, with Adidas using .BERLIN to promote a local initiative.
According to nTLDStats, .BERLIN is now the 34th most popular TLD, having fallen behind thanks to the popularity of .XYZ, .TOP, and other extensions that are favored by Chinese investors. The .BERLIN extension is ranked 3rd among city extensions, beaten only by .NYC and .LONDON.
Before today, I knew very little about the .BERLIN extension and had very little interest in location based TLDs, but after some extensive research and the interview below, I have found that there are many positive aspects to end-users adopting this type of extension; although, I'm yet to be sold on the investment potential of these TLDs. Below is my interview with the .BERLIN team.
NP: How long has .BERLIN been available for purchase?
dotBERLIN: .berlin was launched as the first city TLD globally on March 18, 2014 with more than 30,000 domains on day one. We celebrated our second anniversary on March 18, 2016.
NP: What has been the general reception of .BERLIN?
dotBERLIN: Berliners, Berlin-based companies, and tourists love .berlin! Quite a number of local businesses got their .berlin name, which will help them in marketing and promoting their products to Berliners and tourists alike.
People eat Berliners, hear music from Berlin-based DJs, wear Berlin fashion, drink Berliner Pilsener, visit, stay and work in Berlin – so there are good reasons to also say digitally, “I’m a dot berliner.” The first .berliners include a dog blogger, a model train club and a manufacturer of swimming bbq donuts.
NP: With almost 60,000 domains registered, do you consider .BERLIN to be a successful TLD now?
dotBERLIN: Of course it is great to see that people use their .berlin domain on posters, ads, their websites and for their businesses – and there are millions of good names still available.
Berlin is an awesome city with many creative projects, companies, and people who accept innovations and happily introduce them to their daily routines. We love to see that .berlin is part of this development. Websites of all kinds have completely switched to .berlin and often even their international visitors are positively mentioning that they have noticed the new domain name.
NP: How are Berlin companies successfully adopting the .BERLIN extension? Can you give examples?
dotBERLIN: The digital Berlin is just as colorful as the real life in this wonderful capital. .berlin domains are being used by companies of any size from any branch. From small local family-owned companies to big multinational companies who serve a local target group – there are many different ways of how to make a .berlin domain serve any special purpose:
One example is the local flagship store of the famous German manufacturer Miele, which is directly linked to miele.berlin. The sporting-goods manufacturer Adidas uses runbase.berlin for a running sport project, and the internationally well-known Las Vegas-style theatre Friedrichstadtpalast switched from show-palace.eu to palast.berlin including the e-mail addresses of all of their employees.
Smaller companies are now presenting their products using .berlin domains as well, such as: floridaeis.berlin, butterstulle.berlin, personal-assistant.berlin, marthas.berlin, and gottele.berlin.
The city marketing association just launched the campaign “Berlin 365x24 – Berlin is worth getting to know at every time of year and every time of day” with a Berlin domain name: 365-24.berlin
NP: What is the attraction, do you think, for end-users to switch from a .DE or a .COM to a .BERLIN domain?
dotBERLIN: There are a number of good reasons for Berliners to switch from their .de or .com to .berlin. They perform very well in local searches, identify the business with the city, and provide intuitive names for marketing and communication.
According to the “Local Listing report” performed for 1&1, three out of four Germans frequently search for local dealers on the Internet, and thus Berlin-based companies need to be visible on the Internet. According to an analysis by Searchmetrics, .berlin domains increase the Google-Ranking by one position compared to the same .de or .com domain when people search locally. A .berlin domain is thus the ideal fit for a local business with local customers.
Also, a .berlin domain reaches more attention at end-customers than a .com or .de domain. We often hear that businesses get very positive feedback from their clients about their .berlin domain name.
And finally, there are millions of good names still available, which are often taken under .de or .com or come with a hefty price tag.
NP: I notice that to own a .berlin domain name, you need to have a registered address within Berlin. Why have you opted to use this strategy?
dotBERLIN: One of the three contacts – owner, admin, or tech – has to have a physical address in Berlin. We also allow proxy registrations with an address in Berlin, so it is not too burdensome to register a .berlin name.
NP: Do you think there are any opportunities for investors within the .BERLIN TLD?
dotBERLIN: There are millions of good names still available - keyword domains, brand-able domains, domains with digits only, keywords in non-german language - you name it.
Also, the first sales of .berlin names are interesting, e.g., macarons.berlin (EUR 800), wire.berlin (EUR 8.028), seeker.berlin (EUR 1.000), and luna.berlin (EUR 800). (Sources: domain-recht.de, sedo, sold.domains)
NP: What does the future hold for the .BERLIN brand?
dotBERLIN: As we are an open city, we look forward in getting more people from around the world joining the saying “I’m a Berliner.” We aim to become the number one namespace here in Berlin.
According to nTLDStats, .BERLIN is now the 34th most popular TLD, having fallen behind thanks to the popularity of .XYZ, .TOP, and other extensions that are favored by Chinese investors. The .BERLIN extension is ranked 3rd among city extensions, beaten only by .NYC and .LONDON.
Before today, I knew very little about the .BERLIN extension and had very little interest in location based TLDs, but after some extensive research and the interview below, I have found that there are many positive aspects to end-users adopting this type of extension; although, I'm yet to be sold on the investment potential of these TLDs. Below is my interview with the .BERLIN team.
NP: How long has .BERLIN been available for purchase?
dotBERLIN: .berlin was launched as the first city TLD globally on March 18, 2014 with more than 30,000 domains on day one. We celebrated our second anniversary on March 18, 2016.
NP: What has been the general reception of .BERLIN?
dotBERLIN: Berliners, Berlin-based companies, and tourists love .berlin! Quite a number of local businesses got their .berlin name, which will help them in marketing and promoting their products to Berliners and tourists alike.
People eat Berliners, hear music from Berlin-based DJs, wear Berlin fashion, drink Berliner Pilsener, visit, stay and work in Berlin – so there are good reasons to also say digitally, “I’m a dot berliner.” The first .berliners include a dog blogger, a model train club and a manufacturer of swimming bbq donuts.
NP: With almost 60,000 domains registered, do you consider .BERLIN to be a successful TLD now?
dotBERLIN: Of course it is great to see that people use their .berlin domain on posters, ads, their websites and for their businesses – and there are millions of good names still available.
Berlin is an awesome city with many creative projects, companies, and people who accept innovations and happily introduce them to their daily routines. We love to see that .berlin is part of this development. Websites of all kinds have completely switched to .berlin and often even their international visitors are positively mentioning that they have noticed the new domain name.
NP: How are Berlin companies successfully adopting the .BERLIN extension? Can you give examples?
dotBERLIN: The digital Berlin is just as colorful as the real life in this wonderful capital. .berlin domains are being used by companies of any size from any branch. From small local family-owned companies to big multinational companies who serve a local target group – there are many different ways of how to make a .berlin domain serve any special purpose:
One example is the local flagship store of the famous German manufacturer Miele, which is directly linked to miele.berlin. The sporting-goods manufacturer Adidas uses runbase.berlin for a running sport project, and the internationally well-known Las Vegas-style theatre Friedrichstadtpalast switched from show-palace.eu to palast.berlin including the e-mail addresses of all of their employees.
Smaller companies are now presenting their products using .berlin domains as well, such as: floridaeis.berlin, butterstulle.berlin, personal-assistant.berlin, marthas.berlin, and gottele.berlin.
The city marketing association just launched the campaign “Berlin 365x24 – Berlin is worth getting to know at every time of year and every time of day” with a Berlin domain name: 365-24.berlin
NP: What is the attraction, do you think, for end-users to switch from a .DE or a .COM to a .BERLIN domain?
dotBERLIN: There are a number of good reasons for Berliners to switch from their .de or .com to .berlin. They perform very well in local searches, identify the business with the city, and provide intuitive names for marketing and communication.
According to the “Local Listing report” performed for 1&1, three out of four Germans frequently search for local dealers on the Internet, and thus Berlin-based companies need to be visible on the Internet. According to an analysis by Searchmetrics, .berlin domains increase the Google-Ranking by one position compared to the same .de or .com domain when people search locally. A .berlin domain is thus the ideal fit for a local business with local customers.
Also, a .berlin domain reaches more attention at end-customers than a .com or .de domain. We often hear that businesses get very positive feedback from their clients about their .berlin domain name.
And finally, there are millions of good names still available, which are often taken under .de or .com or come with a hefty price tag.
NP: I notice that to own a .berlin domain name, you need to have a registered address within Berlin. Why have you opted to use this strategy?
dotBERLIN: One of the three contacts – owner, admin, or tech – has to have a physical address in Berlin. We also allow proxy registrations with an address in Berlin, so it is not too burdensome to register a .berlin name.
NP: Do you think there are any opportunities for investors within the .BERLIN TLD?
dotBERLIN: There are millions of good names still available - keyword domains, brand-able domains, domains with digits only, keywords in non-german language - you name it.
Also, the first sales of .berlin names are interesting, e.g., macarons.berlin (EUR 800), wire.berlin (EUR 8.028), seeker.berlin (EUR 1.000), and luna.berlin (EUR 800). (Sources: domain-recht.de, sedo, sold.domains)
NP: What does the future hold for the .BERLIN brand?
dotBERLIN: As we are an open city, we look forward in getting more people from around the world joining the saying “I’m a Berliner.” We aim to become the number one namespace here in Berlin.
