June 7, 2012
EURid has released its .EU domain name progress report for the first quarter of 2012.
The report states the number of registered .eu domain names jumped 6.1% to 3.59 million compared with the first quarter of last year - the best annual growth rate the registry has experienced since the third quarter of 2010.
9% more new domain names were registered in Q1 this year than at the same time in 2011.
Lithuania saw particularly good growth rates - 31.4%; followed by Austria at 22.4% and Slovakia, which experienced 18.1% growth.
23 of the 27 European Union Member States all saw positive growth during Q1 2012.
During the quarter, nearly 20,000 registered domain names were traded, representing one in 180 names in the registry.
The most common length for .eu multi-year registrations (MYRs) has been two years, with 73% of MYRs in Q1 2012 made for this duration. The second and third most common registration lengths were three years (11%) and five years (9%) respectively.
The .eu Top Level Domain (TLD) was added to the root zone of the Internet Domain Name System in May 2005. For the first year it accepted registration applications only from parties with a registered mark (commonly referred to as a Sunrise Period); after which time the registry opened to the public; offering services on a first-come, first-served basis.
.EU name registration criteria states only individuals and organisations residing within the European Union are eligible to become registrants. A similar rule exists in relation to Australian domain names, which also are only available to Australian residents or bodies with an established presence in Australia.
EURid is the not-for-profit organisation appointed by the European Commission to operate the .eu registry. The organisation is headquartered just outside Brussels in Diegem, Belgium.
The full EURid Q1 2012 progress report can be viewed here (PDF).
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