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Berlin launches first city web domain name

Companies and individuals can now register web addresses ending in .berlin, with other world cities set to follow

Berlin has become the world's first city to have its own internet domain name.

Companies and individuals in the German capital can now request web addresses ending in .berlin as alternatives to the more traditional options of .com, .org or the German national suffix .de.

Addresses will be granted on a first come, first served basis and will each cost about €50 (£42) a year.

Berlin's mayor, Klaus Wowereit, said at a launch event that the domain "offers the possibility to highlight digitally that Berlin is where you live your life or base your business activities".

Dirk Krischenowski, of dotBerlin, the company organising the rollout of the new domain name, said it created "more room for diversity, ideas and the naming" of things.

Several dozen other large cities are in the process of equipping themselves with internet domain names including .paris, .nyc, .london and .roma. Other German city domains such as .hamburg and .koeln (Cologne) are set be launched in the future.

In 2011 the agency in charge of website addresses, Icann, launched a scheme to widely extend the catalogue of top-level domains, which it said was needed due to the expansion of the internet.