The number of .AT (Austria) domain names continues to grow with the one millionth registration expected in early 2010 according to the first .AT Report, a new publication on the state of the .AT ccTLD from nic.at.
The report, to be published three times per year, notes that as of April 1 there were 932,132 .AT domain names registered. This was an increase of 7.8 per cent in the preceding five months and almost six times the number from when your correspondent was working for nic.at at the end of 2000.
âThe main goal of the report is to provide statistics and information for the media and the domain name community,â said Richard Wein, commercial manager at nic.at
âThe report is split into two sections,â said Wein. âThere are statistics and general information on .AT in one section, while the second section will include a hot issue that impacts on .AT.â
Austrians love their .AT with two-thirds (68%) of the domains being registered by Austrians, despite no restrictions on who may register a .AT domain name. Statistically speaking this means that every 13th Austrian citizen owns a .AT domain while 51 per cent of domains were registered by private individuals and the remainder by companies and organisations.
Divided up on a state-by-state basis, almost one-third (30%) of domains are registered in Vienna, while Upper and Lower Austria account for another 30 per cent (13% and 17% respectively). On a per capita basis, popular skiing areas such as Salzburg and Tyrol are well represented.
Outside of Austria, predictably, German-based registrants account for the most registrations with 12,806 registrations. This is followed by registrants in the UK (3,020) and Switzerland (1,219).
The hot issue of the initial .AT Report is the secondary market, the buying and selling of domain names. The report notes .AT domain names recorded the largest year-on-year increase of any TLD according to sales statistics provided by Sedo with prices increasing 42 per cent. The most expensive .AT domain sold by Sedo in 2009 was pizzeria.at, sold for â¬17,000. However the most expensive .AT domain name sold, according to publicly available information, was jobs.at, sold privately back in 2007.
The .AT Report is available for download in English and German in PDF format (3.7MB).
To register your .AT domain name, check out Europe Registry here.