.Kyoto may join .Tokyo as top level domain.
It appears that .kyoto may be one of the location specific top level domains that will hit the web in coming years.
The announcement is in Japanese and all translations I’ve seen are rather jumbled, but it appears that GMO Registry is behind the effort. [Update: I’ve heard that DOTKYOTO COMPANY LIMITED is behind the effort and has government approval. It is seeking a registry back end provider, and GMO is one of the candidates.]
The company is already planning a .tokyo top level domain and says it has the support of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government for that effort.
It’s also aiming for the .shop top level domain.
Kyoto has a population of about 1.5 million. Although that’s smaller than most cities you’ll see get their own TLD, it’s part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan region of over 18 million people.
Any readers that know Japanese? Please chime in.
Kevin Murphy says
GMO is pwning the Japanese market from what’s been announced so far.
It’s also doing .okinawa, .ryukyu, .canon and .hitachi.
jp says
I find this interesting because I recall ready (too lazy to find the links) in the past more than one article about how unimportant domains are in the Japanese market and how all their tv ads and billboards refer people to google search for a specific keyword rather than go to a domain. Suddenly they want to spend no small sum of money on domain names.
Interesting
Andrew Allemann says
@ JP – that may change with new TLDs. Still, I wonder if they’ll apply for both .kyoto as well as the Japanese character version.
Jp says
Sorry above, ready = reading. iPhone autocorrect.
Jacob says
The Kyoto Government is currently accepting proposals from service providers for .Kyoto. The newly formed company, DotKyoto Limited, and the The Kyoto College of Graduate Studies for Informatics have publicly announced their bid.
The cutoff for proposal submission is today (2/10/2012 JST). According to the Government website, they expect to make a final decision between 3/1 and 3/7 (http://www.pref.kyoto.jp/news/recruitment/2012/1/1326423349499.html — sorry, another Japanese link)
Jacob says
@Andrew – For some reason IDNs just are catching on here. .JP registration last year shows declining numbers. Also, during the Tokyo bid, the government stated that it would only give approval for the ASCII version. I believe the Kyoto government is leaving IDNs up to the applicant.