Istanbul goes world-wide with '.ist' web address

From Tuesday, Istanbul – as well as being Turkey's largest city – will have its own online presence as well.

Millions of people will be able to buy a new website domain name extension '.ist' or '.istanbul' from 6 p.m. local time [3 p.m. GMT].

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality said that the web address suffixes could now be bought online on a first come, first served basis.

Up to now, there was a pre-request period which companies or persons had to endure plus a sale by auction if more than one person wanted the same domain name.

Mayor Kadir Topbas initially unveiled the new scheme on Jan. 27 following an agreement between the city and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the non-profit global organization that regulates online domains.

Berlin was the first city to launch its own web domain name in March 2014 and has been followed by others such as London and New York.

Istanbul is a hub for digital technology both in Turkey and in the wider region.

Interested parties can visit "www.nic.istanbul" to register their names.