Rio de Janeiro gets city domain on internet

Rio de Janeiro became today (Sep. 17) the first South American city to get its own domain name on the internet. The register .rio has already about 4,200 reserved domains on the website www.meudominio.rio.

The process was approved this year by the Global Domains Division of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the agreement was signed on Wednesday (Sep. 16) with Empresa Municipal de Informática. According to Marcelo Queiroz, municipal secretary for administration, the new domain extension means having the city's brand on the internet.

Mayor Eduardo Paes points out that the city hall has already blocked around 130 domains, including names of beaches, neighborhoods and sights of the city, to avoid future legal dispute. For him, .rio enhances the city's brand and expresses its residents love. "Rio has an economic vocation that has a lot to do with its brand," declared Paes.

Enhancing the brand

President of the Icann's division Akram Atalla  noted that cities like New York, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Vienna, Barcelona and Tokyo already have their own registered domains and reports that these domain names create many opportunities. "It was a program created to encourage competition, choice, and innovation. Rio has many companies with these elements. This program is unprecedented in internet. Before we had 21 selling and general domains, now we have thousands. "

For Paulo Protasio, president of Rio de Janeiro Commercial Association, the .rio establishes the ties between the company and the city anywhere in the world, an essential tool in a globalized world. "When you leave the .br to use .rio, your activity will achieve a centralized geographic recognition. Geotagging is very important in the world nowadays."

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta