When people talk about alternatives to .com these days they are usually talking about the hundreds of new gTLDs that have been released over the past couple of years. However,  

there were quite a few alternatives even before ICANN's new gTLD program began churning them out en masse. Several of those were re-purposed TLDs like .co, .cc, .ws and .me that began life as ccTLDs (delegated primarily for use in specific countries) that, through licensing agreements, started being marketed as global options with alternative meanings (such as .co standing for "company" rather than Colombia - the nation for which it served as the official county code domain).

.LA has a similar lineage in that it was originally designated as the ccTLD for Laos, however unlike the examples above, .LA moved forward as a geo-specific extension - one that has now been used for several years as an online destination for Los Angeles related enterprises, organizations and individuals. 

One thing fans of almost all of the re-purposed 

TLDs seem  to agree on is that the arrival of so many new gTLDs has helped them by making more  people aware that there are lot more choices to the right of the dot than there used to be. 

Veteran domain investor/developer Page Howe (an L.A. native who was profiled in an August 2008 DN Journal Cover Story) has become the best known proponent of .LA domains through his ILove.LA website and his many personal appearances on behalf of the extension he serves as Local Advocate for .LA Premium Domains and .LA's Partners Program. In that role Howe took .LA to Los Angeles's big TechDay event that was held on September 22 with over 4,000 attendees and 400+ exhibitors on hand (one of Howe's wins was getting TechDay to adopt a TechDay.la domain as a much more streamlined link to its existing website at https://techdayhq.com/los-angeles).

Above: Page Howe at his .LA TechDay booth in Los Angeles. Page also spoke at the 
event where Amplify.LA, DWS.LA and Donuts.domains were also among the exhibitors.

Below: TechDay attendees threw down in games of 
rock-paper-scissors to win .LA teddy bears.

.LA is getting some more mileage out of their teddy bears by giving them away in social media promotions this month. Winners are chosen at random for liking the .LA Facebook page, following @ladomains on Twitter or signing up for the newsletter at ILove.LA.   While this kind of promotion and marketing is critical to spreading awareness for any alternate TLD, in the end they will stand or fall based on how many people actually end up using their domains. Howe told us that .LA has been very pleased on that front as well, pointing to the wide variety of live .LA sites on Pinterest as one example. Howe

is particularly enthused about  PenFactory.LA, the home base for a 222,000 square-foot development that is under construction in Santa Monica. You can learn more about the latest happenings at .LA through this post on Howe's ILove.LA blog.