.la

.la is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Laos.[1][2]

For the .la file extension, see Libtool.
.la
Introduced14 May 1996
TLD typeCountry code top-level domain
StatusActive
RegistryLA Names Corporation
SponsorLao National Internet Committee
Intended useEntities connected with Laos
Actual useMarketed as domain for Los Angeles; popular in Latin America, Laos, and among websites about the Toki Pona language; sometimes used for domain hacks.
Registration restrictionsNone; some names are reserved as "premium names" at extra cost
StructureRegistrations are taken directly at the second level
DocumentsICANN .la MoU
Policies
Dispute policiesUDRP
DNSSECyes
Registry websitewww.la
.ລາວ
SponsorLao National Internet Center (LANIC)
Intended useEntities connected with  Laos which use the Lao script

Although the .la domain is officially assigned to the country of Laos, subdomains have been delegated to some organizations outside Laos.

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.[3] Cabel Sasser of Panic created "Poopla" (xn--ls8h.la), "The World's First Emoji Domain" on April 13, 2011.[4] A company based in of Hong Kong by the name of Sterling Holdings originally purchased the TLD from Laos, and marketed it towards users in Louisiana and Los Angeles.

The domain is used by organizations in the state of Louisiana (whose postal abbreviation is LA) and the city of Los Angeles.[5] No official or unofficial association exists between the .la domain and any government in the United States (see .gov and .org). It also sees limited use for businesses in Latin America, such as Intel's site for the region.

The .la domain is also used for domain hacks in the French language and the Chinese language. là means "there" in French and in Italian, 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.[6]

Tesla Motors uses "ts.la" domain hack as a shortener and a redirect.[7]

Digikala, an e-commerce startup in Iran and the Middle East uses the "dgka.la" domain hack as a shortener.

The Network information center of .la is oriented to pages based in Los Angeles.[8]

The Digital Public Library of America uses dp.la.

Lao language domain

In 2008 a preliminary application was made to open the internationalized top level domain .ລາວ (the name of Laos in the Lao language).[9] In 2019 this top level domain was approved. Web sites will come at a later stage. It is intended for usage with domain names in Lao script.

References
  1. "National Portal of Lao PDR". Archived from the original on 2013-10-22. Retrieved 2013-07-04.
  2. "IANA — .la Domain Delegation Data".
  3. "Los Angeles Has Its Own Domain Name". Marketwire.
  4. "The World's First Emoji Domain". Panic Blog. Panic. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
  5. Maierbrugger, Arno (10 July 2013). "Laos rents '.la' Internet domain to Los Angeles businesses". Inside Investor. Archived from the original on 2013-09-14. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  6. "880974 – adding a tinyurl.com link is blocked as spam at wiki.mozilla.org". mozilla.org.
  7. "Tesla Motors - Premium Electric Vehicles". ts.la.
  8. http://www.nic.la redirects to https://www.la/. Page https://www.la/e/about uses the slogan "The Internet Address For Los Angeles".
  9. IDN ccTLD Form of Interest | Laos
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