OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
.EU published its Q4 2016 Progress Report that measures some interesting findings about the developments of the extension and the registrar community.
During Q4 2016, the number of .eu registrations decreased by 32 655 domain names, a net decrease of 0.9%, to 3.76 million. The total number of .eu domain names registered at the end of Q4 represented a decrease of 2.6%, or 101 772 registrations, when compared with the total number at the end of Q4 2015.
By the end of the quarter there were a total of 695 EURid accredited registrars. The top ten registrars accounted for 36.3% of all .eu registrations.
During the fourth quarter, the total number of .eu registrations increased in 13 countries. Bulgaria and Portugal saw growth of more than 3%. Portugal continues to measure positive growth and has been a top growth country for two quarters in a row.
The national ccTLD market in EU countries decreased by 0.4% during Q4 2016, and grew by 1.4% from Q4 2015. Within the EU, the market for gTLD domain names such as .com, .net, .org, .info and .biz decreased by 1.5% during Q4 2016 and grew by 0.4% from Q4 2015, according to statistics from Zooknic.
The countries in the top ten list account for 85.5% of all .eu registrations. German residents have by far the most .eu domain name registrations, followed by residents of the Netherlands and France.
The overall total of .eu registrations made grew considerably when compared to the last quarter – Q4 2016: 175 050 vs Q3 2016: 166 631.
The renewal rate during Q4 was 79%. The average renewal rate over the past ten years is 80%.
Additionally, the registrar community remains fairly stable. .EU has seen a slight increase in accredited registrars throughout many countries including Spain, China, Finland and Slovenia, among others.
“EURid has been closely working with various law enforcement agencies in 2016 in order to clean up and identify abusive registrations. The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Europol in Q4 2016 further enhances this effort as well as EURid’s ability to swiftly react and mitigate abuse within the .eu sphere.”, said Marc Van Wesemael, General Manager at EURid.
Multi-year registrations (MYRs)
Since 7 April 2011 it is possible to register .eu names with a registration period of more than one year. During Q4 2016, 13 535 new registrations with a longer registration period than one year were made. This represented 7.7% of all new registrations in the quarter. The overall number of MYRs registered in 2016 measured exceptional growth due to EURid’s tenth anniversary promotional offer.
New registrations, deletions and renewals
During Q4 2016, there were 206 040 deletions. A domain name headed for deletion is quarantined for 40 days after the date specified in the deletion request.
It can be reactivated during that period only at the request of the former registrant. The quarantine period is a safeguard to prevent domain names from being deleted by mistake. The deleted name becomes available for general registration after the quarantine period. When combined, the new registrations and deletions for Q4 resulted in a net loss of around 300 names per day.
The renewal rate during Q4 was 79%. There were 175 050 new .eu registrations in Q4 2016. The number of new registrations was 20% lower than during the same months in previous years.
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