.eu Q4 2012 progress report: 3.7 million registrations, 80% renewal rate, 5.4% growth

EURid, the .eu registry, just published the Q4 2012 progress report.

On average, 80% of .eu domain names were renewed in 2012, according to the latest progress report from the .eu registry EURid. This is the sixth year running that .eu has maintained such a high renewal rate, indicating that .eu domain name holders are a loyal group.

The top-level domain finished the quarter, and the year, with 3.7 million registrations – an annual growth of 5.4%.

“I consider a growth rate that is comparable to 2011 (5.5%) to be a notable achievement, particularly in light of the on-going global economic crisis,” commented EURid General Manager, Marc Van Wesemael.

During Q4 2012, there were 230 752 new .eu registrations. Of these, 7 184, or 3%, were multiyear registrations (registrations for two years or more). Compared with Q3 2012, the number of multiyear registrations increased by 46%, signifying that a growing number domain name holders plan to hold onto their .eu domains for the foreseeable future.

The total number of .eu registrations increased in 22 of the 27 EU Member States. Bulgaria, Belgium, Slovenia, Lithuania and Finland all saw growth of more than 5%.

Also in the report

EURid-UNESCO Insights report
In collaboration with UNESCO, EURid published a new Insights report titled, “The EURid-UNESCO world report on Internationalised Domain Names deployment 2012“. The report, which analyses the growth of multilingualism on the Internet and the factors that contribute towards that growth, including the use of Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs), can be downloaded at link.eurid.eu/insights.

Extended fee reduction for ADR procedures
On 18 December EURid announced that the fee for a basic .eu Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) procedure would continue to be cut by 50% until the end of 2013. The average number of ADR cases filed per month had risen 80% by the end of Q4 2012, following the introduction of the reduced fee in the beginning of Q3. This increase seems to indicate that there was some sort of financial barrier that prevented certain parties from claiming their rights through .eu ADR proceedings.

Updated transfer procedure
A revised transfer procedure was launched on 21 November 2012 to simplify domain name transfers for .eu registrars. The revised procedure is the result of an extensive internal and external enquiry and analysis of the most effective industry practices. It is similar to the procedures used by other registries, in that it adds a year to the current registration period.

The full report for Q4 2012 is available for download at http://link.eurid.eu/reports.