Just over a year since the launch of .nyc, and already over 78,000 .nyc domains have been registered by New Yorkers. In fact, based on the number of domains registered, .nyc is the largest city top-level domain in the world - beating out other popular cities like .London, .Paris, .Vegas, .Miami and .Berlin for the distinction.
It’s even more impressive when you consider that only residents and businesses within the five boroughs can register a .nyc web address.
So, how does the City keep .nyc exclusive to New Yorkers?
The City of New York set a Nexus Policy (also known as registration restrictions) and enforcement procedures to ensure .nyc domains stay in the hands of the city’s residents and businesses. To bring these policies to life, the City partnered with Neustar to operate, promote, and manage the .nyc domain.
This is the first in a three-part series to explain the policies and enforcement procedures that keep the .nyc domain name exclusive to New Yorkers.
Part 1: Understanding the .nyc Nexus Policy
A “Nexus Policy” is the set of rules that determine a person’s eligibility to obtain a particular domain name.
The full legal description can be found here, but in laymen’s terms, the registrant must satisfy one of these two requirements to register a .nyc domain:
- The registrant is a person who physically lives within one of the five boroughs.
- The registrant is a business or organization with a physical location within one of the five boroughs.
A PO Box is acceptable for administrative purposes, but applicants must also provide a verifiable physical address within NYC’s five boroughs.
Further, registrants agree they will remain compliant with the policy the entire time they own their .nyc domain name. They also agree that they will not give their .nyc web address to anyone who falls outside of the Nexus requirements.
In the next part of the series, we will share enforcement of the Nexus Policy, including how registrations are validated in real-time with ongoing re-validation processes. Please check back next week for Part 2: Nexus Enforcement.
