Regions and cities with their own domains meet in Leeuwarden
Sharing knowledge and looking ahead
On 16 and 17 September, the Dutch town of Leeuwarden was the setting for the annual GeoTLD Group meeting. The group is an international alliance committed to boosting the electronic identities of cities, regions and cultural communities through the use of geographical internet domains, such as .amsterdam, .frl (Friesland) and .cat (Catalonia). This year’s host was FRLregistry, which operates .frl, the domain for the Dutch province of Friesland. At the event were people representing 20 member organisations from all over Europe and beyond.
.frl: the digital face of Friesland
Since 2015, frl has provided Frisian people and organisations with a distinctive home on the internet. There are now more than 10,000 .frl domain names, including the well-known elfstedenhal.frl and fryslan.frl. Managed by FRLregistry, the domain passed a significant milestone this year: 60 per cent of its domain names are now 10 years old.
Sharing knowledge and looking ahead
The 2-day meeting offered people from cities and regions all over the world the opportunity to share their experiences and discuss market developments. ICANN gave an update on policy and regulations, which included news of the upcoming application window for new domain name extensions, due to open in April 2026. Two Dutch geoTLDs were represented: .frl and .amsterdam, the City of Amsterdam’s domain.
GeoTLDs: mixed fortunes
Numerous regional and city domains were applied for in 2012. In the years since, the domains that began back then have experienced mixed fortunes. Some, including .tokyo and .cat, have flourished, attracting more than 100,000 registrations. While others, such as .tirol and .ruhr have struggled to get above 10,000. City domains in particular have seen growth tail off since a surge during the COVID pandemic.
New window, new opportunities?
In April 2026, ICANN will open a new application window for top-level domains. The conditions governing applications are due to be published in December this year. One will be that an application has the approval of the relevant local authorities. That rule will apply to all applications, not only to those for explicitly geographical domains. The reason being that ICANN wishes to avoid any repeat of disputes surrounding earlier attempts to create TLDs such as .amazon.
More information
For information about the GeoTLD Group or about creating a top-level domain for your city or region, visit geotld.group or drop a line to Pim Pastoors at pim.pastoors@sidn.nl.
