The Italian ccTLD passed the 3 millionth domain under management this week with the nominal title of the 3 millionth domain going to abbigliamentoludica.it, registered by a company from Eboli in the province of Salerno. Today there are 3,002,800 domains registered only slightly behind the tenth largest ccTLD, .fr, with 3,003,803 registrations.The very first domain name registered for the Italian country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) was cnuce.cnr.it, registered in December 1987 by CNUCE, an institute of the CNR of Pisa.In 2005, .it passed the one million mark with lucavullo.it registered by a private citizen, a student of music and performing arts in Bologna. Five years later in 2010, the number of domains had doubled to two million with light-stone.it, registered to a company from Acqualagna (Pu).This year the .it Registry asked Pragma to conduct a survey on “Digital and web technology in Italian micro enterprises“. The sample analysed consisted of 1200 micro enterprises, with up to nine employees, representing all sectors: manufacturing, commerce, construction and services. It was revealed that 67% of companies have at least one domain and 5% have more than one. 65% of micro-enterprises with a domain use it to read email, and only 15% use it for communication and marketing. Nine in ten (91%) are not involved in e-commerce. The sample analysed also showed that Facebook with its 28 million users is used for business purposes by only 27% of those interviewed, while 71% admit they have no company page on any social network. The positive fact is that 73% of the interviewed companies that have a domain name chose .it over other top level domains such as .com, .net, .eu and .org.”The .it domain has grown steadily over time,” said Domenico Laforenza, director of the .it Registry and the IIT-CNR. “It’s preferred over other extensions, and this is due to an awareness of the need for a distinctive ‘Made in Italy’ brand, partly for the global and highly competitive market that is the internet.””Despite this important milestone, we still have a lot of work to do; in our country there is limited awareness of the importance of having a domain name, and the Registry is going to strengthen partnerships with key Italian social and economic associations and organizations in order to help reduce the digital divide in Italy.”To support companies’ process of digitisation through the use of Italian domains, the .it Registry has created a communication project, “Made in .it”, as part of a publishing partnership with the Sole24ore’s Nòva24.