Nominet : Over 50,000 .UK Registrations in 24 Hours

Nominet announced today that over 50,000 .UK domain names were registered within 24 hours of opening for registration, makikng this one of the fastest selling new domain names releases on record.

You can read the press release after the jump :

“Within 24 hours of opening for registration, new, short .uk web domains have topped the sales charts. More than 50,000 domains were registered, making this one of the fastest selling new domain releases on record, and beating the first day sales for all of the current batch of new generic Top Level Domains by a large margin.

“Consumers and brands alike are showing their trust in .uk domains, with our registration rates climbing to ten times the typical daily rate.  We’re thrilled with the response, which shows the excitement people feel about the shorter, sharper domain within the trusted .uk namespace ,” comments Eleanor Bradley, Chief Operating Officer at Nominet.

Following British icon and tech enthusiast Stephen Fry’s switch yesterday, Nominet’s sales channel – domain name registrars – have seen phenomenal interest in the new .uk domains and the rate of registration climbed throughout the first working day of its launch. Brands including Sainsbury’s, Bentley and Burberry were among those to register their short .uk domains within the first few hours of availability.

Over ten million existing UK domain holders are being offered first choice on the shorter equivalent of their current address. Nominet will be contacting these customers to ensure they’re aware of their opportunity to exercise this right.

Welcometothe.uk

To celebrate the launch, UK domain registry Nominet rolled out the world’s largest welcome sign – reading ‘welcometothe.uk’ – at Heathrow airport to mark the biggest change to the UK internet infrastructure since it began.

Visible from as high as 35,000 feet, and measuring nearly 10,000 square feet, the welcome sign is positioned on the approach to the main runway at London Heathrow airport, to greet those arriving. 40% larger than the ‘Hollywood’ letters, and hundreds of times the size of the traditional British welcome signs that frequent motorways up and down the country, the welcometothe.uk sign took ten men over eight hours to put in place.

With research revealing that three quarters of British internet users prefer sites ending in .uk when searching or buying online, the introduction of ‘example.uk’ will allow businesses a more succinct web address, comparable to what is available internationally in the likes of Germany’s .de  and France’s .fr. 

When presented with a series of new domains, such as .company, or .london, sites ending in .uk remain the first choice for 93% of internet users.  Those opting for a brand new .uk will benefit from being part of this trusted, popular namespace that is overwhelmingly preferred by Brits, while embracing the shorter option.

Check out EuroDNS here to register your .UK domain name