Brazil unveils .rio, first city domain in Latin America

SAO PAULO

Rio de Janeiro has become the first in Latin American city to get its own domain name, city mayor Eduardo Paes said at a ceremony Wednesday to mark the start of public domain registrations.

Rio joins several other major global cities to have its own domain, including New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, and Berlin.

The event was attended by Akram Atallah, president of the global domains division at ICANN -- the international organization responsible for coordinating domains names.

"For the outside world, Rio has an almost fatal attraction for everyone. Rio's brand is strong economically," Paes said, describing Rio as a "city of dreams".

Marcelo Queiroz, municipal secretary for administration, said the .rio domain "widens the identification of those providing products and services with the seal and spirit of the city, giving greater value to their websites".

The Meu Dominio, or My Domain, project was launched in 2014, and top Brazilian companies, including telecoms giants Vivo, broadcaster Globo, and leading commercial bank Bradesco, have already reserved their own private domains, Terra News reports.

A dedicated local government website give rules for applicants, including guidelines that a proposed .rio domain should refer to a company or person that "is broadly recognized in Rio", "does not refer to illegal activities", and "does not tarnish the image of the city".

Those wanting a .rio domain need to be approved, and from GMT2000 on Sept. 17 will have the opportunity to confirm a domain request during the next 60 days. Domains will cost about 130 reais ($34), the government said, adding that 4,500 requests had been made since last year.

The unveiling of the new domain name also coincided with the release of Brazil's annual survey of Internet usage among the population of 204million, conducted by the Regional Center for Studies on Information and Communication Technologies.

For the first time, 50 percent of Brazilians are connected to the Internet at home, with 32.3 million households now possessing a connection, according a2014 study. The total was 43 percent the previous year, but coverage has grown and the survey now includes households that connect through mobile Internet.

The number of households with an Internet connection that do not have a desktop computer also grew. In 2008, 95 percent of connected households had a PC, but that fell to 56 percent in 2014 and has been overtaken by laptops – now present in 60 percent of connected homes.

The study found that 47 percent of Brazilians aged 10 and older -- or 81.5 million people -- accessed the Internet using a mobile phone in 2014.

It also found that 13 percent of Brazilian households use a neighbor's connection, with or without permission, and that the practice was more common in the poorer northeast of the country.