ICANN is a non-profit organisation responsible for hosting IP addresses, managing generic and territorial domains as well as assigning protocol identifiers. Every year, the ICANN holds meetings with domain registrations (such as .barcelona,.cat, .com, etc.), registrars marketing these domains and other players related to the Internet’s operation.

This year, the organisation has chosen Barcelona, a city with a strong technological potential, as the venue for the ICANN63 meeting. In fact, Barcelona is already the fifth technology “hub” in Europe, with 34% of technology start-ups from all over Spain being established in this city.

In this edition, on 24 October, within the theme block of so-called GEO TLD (Top Level Domain) domains, which include regional and city domains, cities will have their own space driven by Barcelona.

The city round table, under the title “City brand strategies linked to the domains”, deals with city domains as an important brand element, as it is the digital expression on a first visibility level. Along with New York, Paris and Ghent, the .barcelona domain will be present in this official programme to discuss its strategy, which also includes actions to reduce the digital divide in the city. The representatives of other cities attending the ICANN63 will be able to compare and share needs as well as opportunities associated with the development of city domains, of which sixty are already active.

The weight of cities at the annual ICANN conference is a logical translation of the significance cities are gaining on the global board. It is estimated that more than half the population lives in cities, which is where cultural realities and identities happen, transform and develop. City domains are instruments to position cities and amplifiers of their identities.

In this session, Barcelona will explain how using the .barcelona domain is a way to strengthen the city’s digital identity through the entities, companies and platforms using it, thus showing .barcelona as a tool to implement a city brand strategy.

More information:
ICANN63
20-25 October 2018
International Convention Centre of Barcelona

The Smart City Expo World Congress is where cities for excellence meet. A meeting that materialises in very different ways, from talks at the congress to stands showing the latest technological developments applied to smart cities.

This year, the puntCat Foundation has participated in the SCEWC together with the Barcelona City Council. For three days, the City Council’s stand has hosted a set of 30-minute talks with companies, entities and groups that have explained their links to Barcelona and their more social ICT projects. For its part, the Foundation has introduced those projects that are being carried out and that contribute to creating a smarter and more cohesive society in the field of the Information Society.

The conference, under the title “When smart starts off small“, has been led by Eradio López Canosa, sales manager of the puntCAT Foundation. Among the highlighted projects, we have explained the .barcelona District Plan, a project that was developed together with the Barcelona City Council, websalpunt.cat, a website creation contest in Catalan aimed at Secondary School, Baccalaureate and intermediate or higher-degree educational cycle students and comerçlocal.cat, a digital training programme aimed at small store owners in Catalonia.

In short, 30 minutes of sharing small great projects promoting Catalan online and training people in a digital environment.

.Barcelona is launched with the activation of 3,948 domains in three months.

The reserved domains have been active since 21 March, whereas the on-demand assignment has begun.
3,948 domains have been purchased since the reservation period was opened last January.
Barcelona has thus joined other cities that also feature their own domain, such as .nyc, .paris, .london, .brussels, .wien or .berlin.

The .barcelona domain is already in operation. As of 21 March, all those domains that had been requested since January, when the reservation process for this extension was opened, were activated. In the launching period, during which the reservation of priority names could be made, a total of 1,356 .barcelona domains were registered. As of 21 March, when the free registration began, the number of registrations increased to 3,948.

The implementation of the .barcelona domain has caused a lot of excitement. Proof of this is that during the first day of the open registry of .barcelona (on 21 March), 1,782 domains were registered.
The .barcelona domain is owned by the City Council and managed by public tender award to the puntCAT Foundation, a non-profit organisation that has also managed the .cat domain since 2006 and works on the promotion of the Catalan language and culture in the field of the Internet and new information technologies.

The .barcelona domain had been requested by the Barcelona City Council and had been awarded by ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The City Council launched the domain with the aim of helping companies and entities that want to use it to take advantage of all the positive values that represent the city of Barcelona and help them with their projection.

.Barcelona by sectors

(see data in the annex)

In order to guarantee the correct allocation of domains, the City Council and the puntCAT Foundation established a period during which people, entities and companies had a preference when reserving their domain name. This period lasted two months (from 12 January to 15 March), and 1,356 domains were registered.

42.4% of the 1,356 domains registered during the launch period have been registered by companies, 17.88% by public administrations, 5.90% correspond to technological portals (such as Twitter or Apple), another 5.90% to entities and associations and only 0.66% of the registrations correspond to individuals. 13.86% of the domains correspond to generic concepts (such as architect, painter or lawyer). As for the remaining sectors: education (4.57%), health (3.52%), sports (2.14%), culture (1.84%) and media (1.40%).

Regarding domains registered by Public Administrations, 72.13% are domains registered by the Barcelona City Council and 20.49% correspond to Turisme de Barcelona.

If we look at company registrations, it should be noted that 37.9% are allocated to all types of businesses (such as industry, consultancy, technology, law or architectural firms …), 15.65% to shops, 5.04% to international companies and 41.91% to companies related to tourism.

Within tourism, 53.11% of the registered domains correspond to hotels, 26.56% to tourist portals, 13.28% to restaurants and 7.05% to tourist centres.

.Barcelona –​a strong domain compared to other cities

The .barcelona domain is the first and only domain being launched on a country level that refers to a city. Soon, .madrid will also be launched, although, in this case, the domain will represent the Community of Madrid.

Thus, Barcelona is part of the fifty leading cities in the world that have launched their own Internet domain, such as .nyc, .tokyo, .paris, .london or .berlin, among others.

In the priority launch phase, .barcelona has achieved a total of 1,365 registered domains, which exceeds the 1,000 expected registrations and is a very good figure with regard to the priority launches of other cities. It has only been surpassed by .london with 9,000 and .paris with 1,600, both cities with many more inhabitants than Barcelona and which have deployed a very intense communication campaign throughout the year prior to its launch.

Launch comparison with other cities

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Barcelona   1.356 domains

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London   9.000 domains

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Paris   1.600 domains

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Brussels   656 domains

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Vienna   475 domains

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Berliin   199 domains

.Barcelona – a tool to position oneself on the Internet

The .barcelona domain is an important tool that helps to position oneself favourably on Internet search engines, whereas its extensions are highly relevant when it comes to planning a successful digital communication strategy. In addition, it is a new tool for generating the identity of the digital community of Barcelona.

Barcelona’s City Council has set out to work so that .barcelona becomes a reference domain for the city and, therefore, establishes as a requirement that the contents of the website with this extension are linked to Barcelona or its sphere of influence. This link with Barcelona’s community can be applied to multiple activities in various sectors, such as culture, tourism, commerce or education, among many others. The first domain that decided to use the new extension is the participation website of the City Council, https://www.decidim.barcelona,​as a way to clearly reflect how the .barcelona extension approaches its citizens.

Regulating the .Barcelona domain

The domain regulation is based on rules approved by Barcelona’s City Council,​in accordance with the ICANN’s international rules, with the aim of protecting geographic names, icons or local landmark spaces, public authorities and services within Barcelona’s sphere of​influence. For this reason, the Barcelona City Council, as a domain operator, has reserved names, including neighbourhoods and districts – “santandreu”, “barcelona” –, registered city brands – “bcneta” –, city services – “010informacio”, “ciaj” – or emblematic city spaces – “tibidabo”, “parkguell” –. In order to guarantee the domain to its owners, should they request it, institutions, entities and groups have been informed about the importance of reserving and buying their names, for example, “sagradafamilia”.

Wide dissemination of .Barcelona

To guarantee the correct allocation of domains, the City Council, through the Communications Department, has coordinated an intense dissemination campaign since its inception in January. Thus, the website ‘domini.barcelona’ has been put into operation, where all related information can be looked up, whereas informative conferences have been scheduled that are aimed at specific groups in the city, such as those linked to tourism or culture.

Annex

Domains registered during the launch period

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Public administrations   244   17,88%

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Companies   575   42,40%

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Generic concepts (architect, painter, lawyer …)   188   13,86%

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Technological portals and social networks (Twitter, Apple …)   80   5,90%

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Entities and associations   80   5,90%

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Educational sector   62   4,57%

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Health sector   45   3,32%

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Sports sector   29   2,14%

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Cultural sector   25   1,84%

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Mass media   19   1,40%

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Names of individuals   9   0,66%

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Total domains   1356   100%

Public Administrations

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City Council   72,13%

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Turisme de Barcelona   20,49%

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Other administrations   13%

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Metropolitan area   2,05%

Companies

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Businesses   37,9%

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Commerce   15,65%

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International companies   5,04%

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Tourism   41,91%

Tourism Field

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Hotels   53,11%

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Tourist portals   26,56%

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Restaurants   13,28%

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Centres of tourist interest   7,05%