ICANN Blogs

Read ICANN Blogs to stay informed of the latest policymaking activities, regional events, and more.

.RIO - An Internet Medal is Awarded to the city of Rio de Janeiro, the Cidade Maravilhosa

5 October 2015
By

In addition to the U.N. six languages, this content is also available in

null

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 16, 2015- We only have 323 days ahead for the kick-off of the 2016 Olympic Games. The city is immersed in the Olympic Spirit and is working hard to receive thousands of athletes from all over the world. It is finishing new high-end buildings and sports facilities. There's transformation in the air for the celebration of union and sports among different nations. In these days of achievement and excellence, the city of Rio de Janeiro has been awarded its first medal: the Internet domain .RIO

The medal was presented in a ceremony at the breathtaking Palácio da Cidade, the city hall of Rio de Janeiro, during the signature of a registration agreement with the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The ceremony was attended by Mayor Eduardo Paes and the President of ICANN's Global Domains Division, Mr. Akram Atallah. The event was a landmark representing the beginning of the commercialization of the domain and any individual and business located in the city of Rio de Janeiro may now have its own website with the format http://meudominio.rio.

According to Mr. Marcelo Queiroz, Secretary of the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro, "The brand .rio represents the carioca way of living, the lifestyle of Rio de Janeiro, a city with a great penchant for transformation. This will mean further development for the city's economy. The domain .rio enhances the identification of product and service suppliers bearing the brand of the city and the carioca spirit, while adding value to their websites.

Akram Atallah, responsible for the implementation of the Internet new domain names, added: "I hope that, in the future, this will serve as a example for many cities  around the world. This was a program developed for encouraging competition, choice and innovation. In Rio de Janeiro, many businesses share these features. This program is an unprecedented Internet event; before, we had 21 commercial and general domains before; now, we have thousands of them".

Rio de Janeiro is the first city in Latin America Latina having its own domain name and, as such, it is now joining a group of select global cities such as .BERLIN, .NYC, .LONDON, .TOKYO, .PARIS, .MOSCOW, among others. For local individuals and businesses, it is a more adequate form of identification  compared to traditional country codes such as .br, .us, .uk, .fr, etc. And, furthermore, shorter, easy-to-remember, mobile equipment-friendly names may be registered as well. For the global community, this means a higher level of assurance in terms of legitimacy and trust when having access to products and services from specific locations.

And we still have many innovations ahead that you may help to create. The new domain name program introduces more than 1,200 extensions that are transforming the way we interact in the Internet. We congratulate the community of Rio de Janeiro for this innovating achievement and wish it great success in the 2016 Olympic Games.

Authors

Daniel Fink

Daniel Fink

Stakeholder Engagement Director - Brazil