Registrations of .eu (European Union) domain names grew by more than seven percent in Q3 2012 year over year for the second consecutive quarter, the latest progress report from the .eu registry, EURid says. The third quarter’s net growth rate of 7.4 percent was consistent with Q2’s 7.6 percent result.But despite this impressive growth, .eu slipped from the tenth to the eleventh largest TLD with 3.67m domain names at the end of the third quarter. The registry notes that this has been caused by changes in the top level domain environment. An example given is .TK, the ccTLD for Tokelau, which gives away domain names for free and now has over 13 million registrations.At the end of the third quarter there were 3.67 million .eu domain names, compared to .com, the world’s largest TLD with 105.79 million registered domain names and .de (Germany) the world’s largest ccTLD, and second largest TLD, with 15.27 million registered domain names.Next is .net with 14.88 million registrations, .tk (Tokelau – approximately 13 million), .uk (United Kingdom – 10.24m), .org (10.10m), .info (7.24m), .nl (5.12m), .ru (Russia – 4.16m), .cn (China – 3.98m) and then .eu, now with 3.70m.”.eu registrations have risen steadily during 2012, with the Q3 results supporting our sustainable growth targets,” said EURid’s General Manager, Marc Van Wesemael. “During tough economic times, doing business online becomes ever more attractive. I see .eu’s growth as evidence of this trend across Europe.”EURid’s Q3 2012 report shows that Malta had the highest annual growth, a 35 percent rise in .eu registrations compared with Q3 2011, followed by Slovakia (22%) and Austria (21%). During the same period, registrations grew by over 15 percent annually in a further four European Union countries: the Czech Republic, Greece, Lithuania and Slovenia..eu completed the third quarter of 2012 with 3.67 million registered domain names. Across the EU, there were 8% more new .eu registrations in Q3 than during the same quarter in 2011. During these three months, Greece, Malta, Slovakia and Spain all increased by 5% or more.The full Q3 2012 report is available for download at link.eurid.eu/reports.TLD registration statistics come from Registrar Stats while ccTLD statistics come from registry websites.
.EU Registrations Continue To Grow Strongly
Registrations of .eu (European Union) domain names grew by more than seven percent in Q3 2012 year over year for the second consecutive quarter, the latest progress report from the .eu registry, EURid says. The third quarter’s net growth rate of 7.4 percent was consistent with Q2’s 7.6 percent result.
