'.Amazon' gives e-commerce giant its own internet domain

E-commerce giant Amazon was on its way to running its own online neighbourhood Monday after the internet's address keeper granted the ".amazon" domain to the company.

After waiting in vain for years for the US online retail colossus and an alliance of South American countries to resolve their battle over the right to web addresses ending with ".amazon," the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) this month sided with the Seattle-based company.

In 2012, Amazon applied for ".amazon" and two internationalized versions of the name. Brazil and several other countries put the US company on notice that they were opposed to the idea.

"Due to its inseparable semantic relation to the Amazon forest, that domain should not be, in any way, the monopoly of a company," the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs argued on its website.

"On the contrary, it is imperative that the States concerned be able to participate in the management and use of the name in order to defend and promote the natural, cultural and symbolic heritage of the Amazon region, as well as foster the regional economy and the digital inclusion of the populations living there."