Company, city aim to put .vegas among top Internet domains

A Nevada company and the city of Las Vegas think that Vegas should be a virtual destination as well as a physical one.

If they have their way, .vegas will be added to the list of top-level domains, taking its place among the .coms and .edus of the world.

"It becomes a highway on the Internet," said James Trevino, president and CEO of Dot Vegas Inc. "The region cannot buy that type of exposure.

"We could say that we are now recognized as an Internet city."

Similar efforts exist for domains to be named for Paris (.paris), Berlin (.berlin) and New York City (.nyc).

That recognition, if it comes, is a long way off. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers hasn't decided yet whether to allow additional top-level domains, and if it does, the approval process most likely will be "cumbersome," Trevino said.

"It's anybody's guess when it can happen," he said.

Michele Jourdan, an ICANN spokeswoman, said the entity is accepting public comments on adding domain names until Jan. 27.

On Wednesday, the Las Vegas City Council will consider a resolution supporting the .vegas effort as well as a revenue-sharing agreement with the company, which would manage .vegas domain registrations.

The city would get 50 cents for each name registered or renewed with the company or 10 percent of its gross annual profits, whichever is greater.

Trevino said he couldn't estimate how many registrations there might be. The goal is to have 300,000 to 500,000 registered users in the .vegas domain within five years, which could translate into $150,000 to $250,000 for the city.

The city would also reserve a number of .vegas addresses for city use, including citycouncil.vegas, lasvegas.vegas and mobmuseum.vegas.

City support isn't necessary to pursue the domain, Trevino said, but it could help if ICANN ends up considering the idea.

"It always helps to have as much support as possible," he said. "It's going to have to compete on a very broad base.

"Let's just hope that people recognize it and it's received well, if it gets that far."

There are 21 top-level domains, such as .com, .org and .net, according to ICANN. There are also about 250 two-letter country codes, such as .de (Germany), .jp (Japan) or .mx (Mexico).

By the end of 2008, 177 million domain names had been registered.

Trevino has worked in the financial end of the technology industry for years and owns Business Finance Corp., which offers services such as financial restructuring and enterprise financing. He also helped found eNIC, which managed the .cc domain.

Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.