.la

.la

Introduced	1996
TLD type	Country code top-level domain
Status	Active
Registry	LA Names Corporation
Sponsor	Lao National Internet Committee
Intended use	Entities connected with  Laos
Actual use	Marketed as domain for Los Angeles
Registration restrictions	None; some names are reserved as "premium names" at extra cost
Structure	Registrations are taken directly at the second level
Documents	ICANN .la MoU
Dispute policies	UDRP
Website	www.la
DNSSEC	yes

.la is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Laos.^[1]

Although the .la domain is officially assigned to the country of Laos, it has also been rented out to some businesses in the city of Los Angeles.^[2] No official or unofficial association exists between the .la domain and any government in the United States (see .gov and .org).

The .la domain is also used for domain hacks in the French language and the Chinese language. là means "there" in French, and in other Romance languages; "啦" (pinyin: la) is a common modal word at the end of a sentence or a phrase in Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese.

Mozilla Foundation's URL shortener uses it with the "mzl.la" domain hack.^[3]

Tesla Motors uses "ts.la" domain hack as a shortener and a redirect.^[4]

Domain names registered with the .la top-level domain start at $50.00 and skyrocket for other generic associations.

The Network information center of .la is oriented to pages based in Los Angeles.^[5]

Intel Latin America uses intel.la.

The Digital Public Library of America uses dp.la.

History

The LA Names Corporation, based in Guernsey, has gained the rights to market .la registrations, and they had used the registry services of Afilias and, formerly, the registrar services of DreamHost. However, DreamHost has discontinued registrar services as of May 2006. LA Names and CentralNic, Ltd. completed the transfer of the .la domain name to the CentralNic system in 2007.^[6]

References

External links

• IANA .la whois information