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Dot-eu is third most popular domain name
Wednesday, April 11 2007
by denise cox


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.