MIAMI BECOMES THIRD U.S. CITY TO LAUNCH DEDICATED TOP-LEVEL DOMAIN – .MIAMI New era of Internet innovation creates opportunities for city's businesses, organizations and residents

Miami is embracing a new era of Internet innovation. Starting Oct. 2, the city will become the third in the U.S. to adopt a geographic top-level domain – in Miami's case, .MIAMI – to allow businesses, communities, residents and anyone who simply loves Miami, to associate themselves with the Magic City.

Following the successful launches of .nyc in New York and .vegas in Las Vegas, the .MIAMI domain name allows everyone to clearly align themselves with the city's strong international brand. .MIAMI domains offer short, memorable and local names, and act as a powerful tool for businesses to connect to customers and position themselves as credible, relevant enterprises. Search engine algorithms also place significant value on web addresses when determining search results, and a .MIAMI domain name can help increase search engine optimization (SEO) and click-through rates.

The new domain is already generating interest from many of the city's key players, including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which supports the arts and entrepreneurship in Miami and will own www.startup.miami.

The .MIAMI domain will also raise additional funds for the City of Miami, as the City will receive a significant share of the revenue generated from purchases of .MIAMI addresses. These added funds will go toward fostering government technology initiatives.

"Everyone wants to be a part of Miami and the launch of the .MIAMI domain establishes a unique Internet presence for us," said City of Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado. "Public departments, local businesses and residents can now demonstrate their passion for Miami with a .MIAMI domain and in doing so, elevate our visibility and reputation on the Internet stage."

.MIAMI domain names will be available to the public on a first-come first-served basis beginning Oct. 2. Standard domain names, such as www.companyname.miami, will cost around $15 per year, with Premium Names such as www.realestate.miami or www.business.miami, priced higher. GoDaddy, a key partner of .MIAMI, is taking advance orders for domain names ahead of the Oct. 2 opening through www.GoDaddy.miami.

The .MIAMI domain is operated by Minds + Machines, a leading domain name registry, in cooperation with the City of Miami. Minds + Machines has launched 18 new top-level domains in the past year, including .london in the U.K., and .bayern and .nrw (North Rhein-Westphalia) in Germany. Minds + Machines is a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE:MMX).

.MIAMI is a new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) established as a part of the historic expansion of the Internet naming system administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to provide greater choice and relevance to consumers. ICANN's decision has sparked unprecedented innovation and increased consumer choice by meeting the public's growing demand for relevant new domain names, many of which are now starting to be seen on the Internet. Since the launch of the very first new gTLD in February 2014, more than 7.5 million domain names have been registered across several hundred new top-level domains. In Q2 2015, new gTLD registrations accounted for 82 percent of the overall growth in the aggregate base of name registrations across all domains.

To learn more about .MIAMI and how it can help promote business and activity in Miami, or to find a participating registrar, please visit www.my.miami. To pre-register a domain name, go directly to www.GoDaddy.miami.