Monday, April 24, 2006

.EU domain rush over

The rush for the .eu domain is over. On April 7, 2006 the frenzy started. The Dutch recorded 9,26 domain names per 1.000 inhabitants. AS such they stood out, beating Sweden with 6,96 domain names per 1.000 inhabitants. Germany was in the third place with 4,78 domain names per 1.000 inhabitants. Great Britain was in the fourth place with 4,47 domain names per 1.000 inhabitants.

It is interesting to observe the political side of this. The Dutch voted against the EU constitution last year, but apply for the most .eu domains. Great Britain was less interested in the .eu domain names; this is not surprising for an island of which half the population still think that it could live in splendid isolation from the rest of the world, let alone from Europe.

More than 1,2 million .eu domain names were handled with the first 24 hours by the registrar EURid (European Registry of Internet Domain Names).

There was criticism on the price for the domain name. Some ISP thought that the price of 15 euro ecl. Of VAT for an .eu name was too high and were subsidising the applications as a marketing stunt. One ISP in the Netherlands started a marketing action with a the Reed-Elsevier’s magazine Bizz to give away .eu domains for free. Many of the .eu domains applied for did not materialise. I wonder what the people think about the ISP and the business magazine.

I myself attempted to get an .eu domain, but it did not work out. Will have to think up a variation on the name and register that with success.

Tags:

No comments: