Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

April 11, 2008

Since 2006, industry observers have seen the registration of over 2.8 million new European Internet identities, with .eu domains ranking as the 4th most popular TLD (top level domain) in Europe.

Additionally, it was reported that .eu domains ranked ninth globally.

Viviane Reeding, E.U. High Commissioner for Information Society said that, "overall, the creation of a trustworthy environment with a distinct European identity is at the forefront of our vision for Europe’s inclusive Information Society."

She added that "early adopters of the .eu TLD understood its value, and have grasped the opportunity to promote their own pan-European outlook. It should now become the natural choice for everyone in Europe. The stronger Europe's single market for telecommunications grows, the more we ought to ensure that .eu becomes more visible, secure and affordable."

On average, Germany continues to lead the total number of .eu registrations per country of origin with a 31.4 percent market share, followed by the Netherlands with 13.4 percent, the U.K. with 13.3 percent, France with 7.3 percent and finally Italy with less than 5.12 percent.

By the second anniversary of its launch, which took place just last week, .eu had consolidated its place well among the ten largest TLDs in the world, competing with long-established identities such as .com, .net or .org.

Overall registrations for the .eu TLD have been continuously increasing after the initial boom year.

Subscriptions for about 80 percent of the domain names have been renewed for their second year, which shows considerable promise for .eu domains.

Reeding added "the actual usage and visibility of the .eu TLD is apparent with almost 80 percent of registered names directing to a functioning website and/or email server."

At the same time, the overall growth of .eu domain registrations was at about 11.2 percent last year, while the number of registrations from Poland increased by over 48.5 percent for the same period.

Lithuania and Finland followed in close second and third place with 48.4 percent and 39.9 percent, respectively.

Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

Source: Tech Blog