Bars and drinks brands are starting to snap up the new domain name of .bar after it went live this week.
Companies purchasing the new URL endings range from Spirit Pub Company for its Taylor Walker and John Barras pubs to Harry’s Bar in Venice and hotel and casino operator Wynn Resorts.
Drinks companies and brands include Chambord, Southern Comfort, Woodford Reserve, Herradura, Jack Daniel’s, Miller Genuine Draft, Rémy Martin Louis XIII Cognac, Cloudy Bay, Moët & Chandon, Dom Pérignon, Veuve Clicquot, Aperol and Campari.
The new generic top-level domain (gTLD) was launched this week at an event in the Long Bar at Sanderson hotel in London, attended by leading figures in the UK’s bar, pub and club industry. It went live on Monday (July 14).
It is one of 24 new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) which also include .rest and .café as alternatives to .co.uk and .com.
Aaron Grego, chief executive of domain consultancy Punto 2012, said: “.bar will connect the bar and club industry with customers online. This is a perfect opportunity for businesses to grab a simple and easy-to-use domain name that describes their bar or club with a descriptive name. Our industry needs to stand out online and be found — with .bar they can.”
Ben Crawford (pictured), chief executive of CentralNic and domains.bar, said: “After meetings with our partner Punto 2012 in bars in New York City, Mexico City, Denver, Las Vegas, Munich, Singapore and the Bar municipality in Montenegro, it is a long-awaited pleasure to launch the .bar domain name in London’s Long Bar in the company of many leading lights of the adult beverage profession as well as renowned barflies from the domain name industry.”
They expect the new domain to appeal to pubs, bars and nightclubs as well as manufacturers of drinks and other products in the bar sector.
They said that using the domain name would help to differentiate businesses through improved internet marketing capabilities and boosted search engine optimization (SEO). They also warned about guarding against cyber-squatting.
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