EMZETT.Geographic TLD
In short: A TLD referring to a geographic region rather than a country, e.g. .berlin, .nyc or .eu.
In more detail: Unlike a classic ccTLD, a geographic TLD isn’t tied to an ISO country-code abbreviation, but to a city, region, or continent. It formally counts as a generic TLD (gTLD), but is often issued with regional registration restrictions.
In Depth
Geographic TLDs mainly emerged through ICANN’s expansion of the domain namespace starting in 2012, which allowed cities, regions, and organisations to apply for their own TLDs — a process that can take years and cost millions. Cities like Berlin, London, New York (.berlin, .london, .nyc) or regions like the Basque Country (.eus) mostly use their TLD to build local identity: a company with a .berlin domain signals a connection to the city, regardless of its actual company headquarters.
The most important difference from a ccTLD: a geographic TLD isn’t based on the two-letter ISO 3166 country code, and is therefore formally classified as a generic TLD (gTLD), even though it has a geographic meaning in content — it’s therefore subject to different ICANN regulations than a ccTLD like .de, whose allocation traditionally lies entirely with the respective national registry.
See also: TLD, ccTLD, Country Codes