A company seemingly taking advantage of the new gTLD program has started selling subdomains off of the domain name nyc.mn calling itself the “City Level Domain For Manhattan”.

“”nyc.mn is a city-level domain for New York City’s Manhattan – created to provide a gold-standard online identity for the heart of NYC.”

“Being based in the world’s most iconic city means having access to an iconic city-level domain. A concise nyc.mn address strikes a bold impression, saying more about who you are than a .com or .us.com.”

“New York City’s Manhattan is one of the oldest and most universally recognized brands.””

Its important to know unlike a the gTLD for a city like .NYC which have the support by the city, this offering does not.

.Mn is the ccTLD domain for Mongolia.

NYC.Mn is a registered domain under that ccTLD,  and anyone buying a subdomain like lawyers.nyc.mn is simply getting a subdomain of the ccTLD.

Its certainly a very clever marketing campaign, one can argue its quite misleading.

Certainly with the new gTLD’s program, especially the .NYC TLD in the news , those not really familiar with the domain space may think they are getting a domain authorized by or offered through the borough of Manhattan, rather than through a private company with no relationship with the underlying borough.

It should also be pointed out since the company is has not applied and is not a registry with ICANN, it is not governed or subject to the requirements of a registry by ICANN’s rules and regulations.

The official site for nyc.mn is at Register.nyc.mn

Pricing for a .NYC.MN domain varies depending on whether you want to use it as a domain or just as an email account

For example lawyers.nyc.mn is available for $10 a month,

lawyers.nyc.mn is available also just for an email account (standard) at $23 per month and  email (exclusive) is $46 per month.

According to the site the company operating the “registry” is Onekind Productions.