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Dot-eu is third most popular domain name
11-04-2007
by Ciara O'Brien

More than 2.5 million people have signed up for a dot-eu address on the web, only a year after the domain name was launched.

The new figures put the dot-eu domain in third place on the list of most popular top-level domains (TLDs), and interest has picked up in recent months, with registrations rising 17 percent in the past five months. More than 29,800 of the addresses were registered in Ireland.

Demand has been widespread through the EU states. However, the strongest demand for the address has come from Germany, which accounted for 31 percent of the domain registrations, followed by Britain at 17 percent and the Netherlands at 12 percent.

The peak of demand was seen in April 2006 -- the first month that the domain was open to the general public -- when 76 domain names were successfully registered every second. Close to 80 percent of dot-eu domain names now link to a working website or e-mail server.

"After just one year dot-eu has become a well-established part of Europe's cyberspace," said Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media. "This is a positive sign of the attractiveness of electronic commerce within the EU."

Along with the success of the dot-eu TLD, demand for national domain names has also risen. Germany and the UK saw a 5 percent growth in demand for national domains since October last year, while the Netherlands saw demand for dot-nl addresses increase 10 percent in the same period. Meanwhile, France has opened up its national domain, dot-fr, to the public. It had formerly been reserved for professionals, associations or public bodies.