Dublin-based company, EU Internet, was listed yesterday among the top 3pc of worldwide .eu registrars, according to the European Registry of Internet Domain Names, EURid.
Of the 13,681 domain names registered through Irish companies by the end of last year, more than 12,000 were registered through EU Internet.
“EU Internet was the first company in Ireland to become accredited to EURid and we are delighted to have maintained our position as the No 1 Irish registrar,” said Phelim O’Connell, CEO of EU Internet.
EURid, founded in 2003, was chosen by the European Commission to operate the new .eu top-level domain. It began accepting applications from registered businesses in December 2005 and opened its doors for general registration just over a year ago.
According to the EURid report, more than 2.4 million .eu domain names were registered by December 2006, with a monthly growth rate of 2.4pc since April of last year.
O’Connell said: “The primary objective of the .eu domain is for organisations wishing to brand themselves as European or target the European market.
“Many companies are registered purely as brand protection exercise, but if a business has a European presence or expects one they generally register with .eu to protect their brand,” he said.
Of its customer base O’Connell said: “A lot of businesses that have existing domain names such as .com have registered, but we are not seeing a lot of new businesses registering because it’s new and is not as well known as .ie and .com.”
EU Internet has many customers, however, registering their own personal names with .eu. “Many people use it for their own email or because they have a blog,” said O’Connell.
By Marie Boran
