.NYC, the ccTLD for New York city is said to be limited to a select group of people. The Wall Street Journal points out that only local residents and business owners within the vicinity can purchase the domain, which limits the extension to a small segment.
There is a $20 wholesale registration price imposed on the extension which is almost three times the cost of a regular .COM. This pricing causes some .NYC domains to go for as much as $40 on some sites.
It is said that the high pricing of the extension has resulted in a sum of just 78,000 .NYC extensions purchased since the websites launched in September 2014 which generated about $2 million of revenue for the city.
Neustar, the registry for the .NYC extension says the limitations were put in place intentionally, as the high price discourages speculators who prefer domains like .xyz that can be purchased for pennies. Jeff Merritt, the city’s Director of Innovation, adds that he’s happy with the small business nature of the domain, citing murraysbagels.nyc and flushingchamber.nyc as examples.
He says :
Despite a rather stagnant two years, some New Yorkers who were quick to get in on the game have made quite a profit off .NYC addresses.
Queens teacher Matt Gill bid $2,903 for kids.nyc and has since been offered $8,000 for it, and a Manhattan podiatrist paid $60,920 at auction for marijuana.nyc.