The City of New York launched a website on Wednesday aimed at promoting and aiding startup companies in their early stages. The site is called Digital.NYC and is the Big Apple's latest step toward becoming a hub for the tech industry like it is for so many other businesses. In March, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority awarded the generic top-level domain .nyc, which the city has been distributing to local organizations for a few weeks.
Digital.NYC was built on the Bluemix cloud platform as a service with support from the not-for-profit New York City Economic Development Corporation. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio publicly introduced the site at a press conference held in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Dumbo, home to a number of successful tech companies including e-marketplaces Etsy and Maker's Row.
"This is the first of its kind anywhere in the world, a public-private partnership to really bring all of the aspects of the industry together," he said. "We love and respect our brothers and sisters in Silicon Valley, but people here can find each other."
The website will feature an extensive database of more than 6,000 names, both companies and investors, to help promising startups find venture capital. Tech professionals will also be able to search job listings, and all interested parties can find information on upcoming courses and events, incubators and workspaces where entrepreneurs can meet to exchange ideas and business contacts.
De Blasio hopes that New York City will soon become a tech hub on par with California's Silicon Valley, producing its own software developing companies and attracting enterprising talent from around the United States and abroad.