Number of Istanbul domain names rivals other world cities

Since becoming available in January, new website domain name extensions for Istanbul have been selling swiftly among domain names for other world cities, a municipality spokesman has said.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Bekir Kaplan, media relations manager for the city, said sales of the ".ist" and ".istanbul" web suffixes were rivaling those of New York, London, Barcelona, Berlin, Moscow and Tokyo.      
  
According to Kaplan, Istanbul boasts the third best-selling city domain name after New York and London in the past two months.        

"The domain names will promote Istanbul's trade and cultural advantages globally," Kaplan said.
       
"This is very important for us. Istanbul, connecting Europe and Asia, will connect the world as well," he added.        
According to the municipality, the domain names have been also snapped up by global brands such as the BBC, BMW, Versace and WhatsApp.        

The scheme was unveiled by Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas on Jan. 27, following an agreement between the city and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the non-profit global organization that regulates online domains.

Berlin was the first city to launch its own web domain name in March 2014 and has since been followed by others such as London and New York.
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