July 2009 bumper month for .eu registrations

Brussels, 27 August 2009 – EURid is pleased to announce that 66 129 new .eu domain names were added to the .eu registry during the month of July. This is a 12-month high in new registrations and a rise of 15% when compared to July 2008.

“We welcome this strong start to the third quarter, which is a reminder of the value of .eu,” comments Marc Van Wesemael, EURid General Manager.

The .eu launch, which saw 1.7 million names registered in April 2006, leads to a large and expected number of renewals and deletions every April.

According to EURid’s upcoming Quarterly Progress Report, the 2.92 million .eu registrations at the end of the second quarter represented an annual increase of 3.1% when compared to the same period in 2008.

Renewal rates stayed strong at an average of 81%, which is somewhat higher than the industry norm. The quarter also saw a sharp drop in trades: only 29 816 .eu domain names out of 2.9 million changed hands, or about one domain name out of 100. That is a significant decrease compared to one year ago, when one in 30 was traded.

“People who register .eu names are keeping them and using them,” notes Mr Van Wesemael.

One indicator of the actual use of .eu domain names is the number of DNS queries to .eu name servers. The number of DNS queries has grown steadily since the launch of .eu. The second quarter was no exception (below).

EURid’s Quarterly Progress Report, Second Quarter 2009 will be published next month on www.eurid.eu.

“The number of registrations is dynamic for all registries and changes over time throughout the industry,” notes Mr Van Wesemael. “What doesn’t change is the value of a strong Internet presence.”