Monthly Archive for August, 2009

Swedish Regulators Say The Word “Bank” not Allowed in any Domain Names… Except If You are a Bank

August 31, 2009

It is quite common for regulators around the world to insist that no company can call itself a “bank” unless it is an official, regulated bank.

In fact, that’s often why you see companies (including holding companies of real banks) that use the word “banc” instead of “bank”.

However, it looks like regulators in Sweden have gone a step further, telling the Swedish domain registrar that it can’t even allow any domain name to be sold with “bank” in it, unless it’s sold to an official bank.

Of course, the whole thing seems ridiculous. There are plenty of legitimate reasons why a site might want to use the word “bank” in a domain name without being a bank themselves. A domain could be a site about banks, a service site like Bankrate or simply contain a surname like Banks which shouldn’t confuse too many folks.

.EU Registrations Continue to Grow, Although Financial Crisis Impacts

August 31, 2009

Latest statistics from .EU Domain Registry show the total number of .EU domain names registered briefly passed, and then slipped below the 3 million mark. .EU is the 9th largest TLD and 5th largest ccTLD.

The three millionth .EU domain name was registered on 11 January, 2009. However today there are 2,976,134 .EU domain names registered, which follows a bumper month for registrations in July when 66,129 new .EU names were registered.

A reason for the decline is the launch of .EU was in April 2006, so there is a larger number of renewals and deletions every April.

And while there was a decline in the number of registered names when compared to the fourth quarter 2008, there was a 13.4% increase in registrations when compared to the same period one year ago.

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

But reflecting the global financial crisis, there was a slight decrease in the number of domain names registered per day in quarter one.

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.

In number of registrations by country, Germany continues to lead with 930,570 registrations as of the end of quarter one 2009 followed by the Netherlands with 415,641 and the United Kingdom with 352,865.

However when looking at the number of .EU domain names per 1,000 people, Cyprus is the clear leader with 66.2 .EU domain names followed by Luxembourg (55.4), the Netherlands (25.2), Ireland (11.4) and Germany (11.3).

These figures compare to registrations for the country’s ccTLD, which show the Netherlands with the highest penetration rate here with 201.6 .NL registrations per 1,000 people. This is followed by Denmark (.DK/179.4), Germany (.DE/154.6), United Kingdom (.UK/121.1) and Austria (.AT/101.8).

13 Million .DE Domains Registered

August 20, 2009

.DE, the domain extension for Germany, passed the 13 million registration milestone on 18 August cementing its position for now as the domain extension with the most registrations worldwide.

New Operator and New Policies For .CO

August 20, 2009

The Colombian Ministry of Communications has advised that INTERNET S.A.S. will be the new operator of the .CO registry. The company won the right to operate the registry as the result of a tender operated by the ministry.

Once the new consortium takes over the operation of the .CO ccTLD registry they will begin to introduce new policies including opening registrations at the second level, the integration of internationalized domain names and a quicker registration process. Other proposed changes include the introduction of registrars and a dispute resolution service.

Other important changes:

Domain registration will be completely open to public without the requirement of Colombian address
Prices are expected to be very competitive and accessible
Sunrise period for registrations at the second level with priority for those who had registered a domain name before the approval of the new policies
There are pending the details (terms, prices and procedures) for the operation of the new administration of .CO domains.

600,000 Belgian Websites on The Net

August 19, 2009

According to research conducted for the first time by the .BE Domain Registry, there are currently over 600,000 Belgian websites online.

The Registry scanned all registered .be domain names to see whether or not they have a website linked to them. In total, there are 605,067 Belgian websites on the Net. This means that 7 out of 10 holders of a domain name also make effective use of .be.

43% of all websites consists of just one page, while 27% have more than one page.

14% of domain names direct visitors to another domain name.

Only 16% of domain names have no website, which does not mean they are not being used, because you can also create your own e mail addresses when you have a domain name.

On average, each homepage at a Belgian website features 13 links.

“You can use your own domain name (domain.be) to link a website (www.domain.be) or to create your own e mail addresses (info@domain.be).

The fact that there is also a website linked to 7 out of 10 .be domain names demonstrates that having your own domain name has now gone beyond the gimmick stage and has become an important communication channel for individuals as well as for businesses”, says the Registrys spokesman Hans Seeuws.

“Our more in depth technical research also shows that Belgian webmasters are aware and keep abreast of the most recent technologies and are using them to a large extent.”

Registrations of Second Level .GT Domains Available Before Year-End

August 18, 2009

Guatemala Domain Registry is opening up the .GT domain name space to allow for registrations at the second level by the end of 2009 in addition to registration at the existing third level registration such as .COM.GT.

Prior to the launch to the public, there will be a Sunrise period when all holders of .COM.GT domains will be able to apply for their second level .GT equivalent.

In addition to enabling registrations at the second level, the Registry is working on new software to manage registrations. The new system will allow for the registration of second level .GT domains, as well as the .COM.GT domains currently offered.

The new software is still under development, but it is expected to be launched before the end of 2009.

.DE Regains Number 1 Ranking From .CN

August 18, 2009

With .CN (China)’s official statistics for domain name registrations on a downward spiral, according to figures provided by .CN Domain Registry, .DE (Germany) has regained its position as the extension with the most registrations.

Registrations for .CN have declined from a peak of 14,082,553 in February 2009 to 12,545,589, a decline of approximately 1.5 million, as of the end of July. This appears to be a correction following a promotion where .CN domain names could be registered for one yuan for the 12 month period to December 31, 2008. With registrations coming up for renewal, many registrants may have decided not to renew their domain names.

Meanwhile .DE registrations continue to grow, albeit at a slightly slower rate than before. The easing off of registrations began in late 2008/early 2009 and is most likely due to the global financial crisis. When looking at figures provided by .DE Domain Registry, registrations have grown at a consistent rate since mid 2001 till early 2009.

The 13 millionth .DE registration is expected around 22 August with registrations currently standing at 12,990,476.