Germany Leads With Most .EU Registrations

Germany has by far the most registrations of .eu domain names with close to 1.127 million followed by the Netherlands with around 489,000 and then France and the United Kingdom with 344,000 and 328,000 respectively according to the latest EURid Quarterly Progress Report for the third quarter of 2013.

The report also shows that during the third quarter, the total number of .eu registrations increased in 16 of the 28 EU Member States. Ireland, Portugal, Estonia, Malta and Latvia all saw growth of more than two percent. Renewal rates stayed strong during Q3 at an average of 80 percent.

The quarter also saw the number of .eu registrations decrease by 3,051 domain names, a net decrease of 0.1 percent, to 3.7 million. The total number of .eu domain name registered at the end of Q3 represented an increase of 0.9 percent, or 34,749 registrations, when compared with the total number at the end of Q3 2012.

Among the world’s TLDs, .eu was the eleventh largest at the end of the quarter. The largest was .com with 110.6 million registrations followed by .tk (Tokelau – 19.8m), .de (Germany – 15.6m), .net (15.1m), .uk (United Kingdom – 10.6m), .org (10.4m), .cn (China – 7.8m), .info (6.1m), .nl (Netherlands – 5.3m), .ru (Russia – 4.8m) and then .eu followed by .br (Brazil – 3.3m).

In terms of density it is a different story with the Netherlands leading with 29.3 .eu domains registered per thousand people. The Netherlands also has one of the highest ccTLD domains registered per thousand people with 317.4. On .eu density, the only other countries with more than 20 .eu domains registered per thousand were Luxembourg (27.8) and Malta (25.7) while Cyprus, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Estonia and Belgium all have more than ten.

There were also a number of developments in the quarter, the most significant being the certification for the ISO 27001 security standard following an audit by the British Standards Institution on 24 September 2013

ISO 27001 is a standard designed and developed to help businesses manage their security. It provides requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and continuously improving an Information Security Management System (ISMS) in the framework of general company risks. It includes people, processes and IT systems by applying a risk management process.

“EURid decided to adopt this standard to show our registrars, registrants and the world that information security is a key asset to us,” commented EURid General Manager Marc Van Wesemael. “Achieving certification is also another way in which we can improve the quality of the .eu brand.”

The EURid Quarterly Progress Report for the third quarter of 2013 is available for download from www.eurid.eu/en/about-us/publications.

GoDaddy Opens Sunrise For 14 TLDs

GoDaddy is pushing ahead with opening Sunrise periods for 14 new TLDs. The 14 TLDs are .estate, .photography, .ventures, .guru, .bike, .clothing, .gallery, .singles, .camera, .lighting, .plumbing, .equipment, .graphics and .holdings.

Registrations will open to the general public early in 2014, but for now only those that have registered their brands with the Trademark Clearinghouse are able to register.

“The new names give businesses an easy way to establish a credible and memorable identity,” said GoDaddy Vice President Domains Mike McLaughlin. “In order for small businesses to be successful, a strong online identity is a must. The new name options can help provide quick and easy context for a business. If you think about it, domain names are essentially 21st century real estate – it is the online address given to customers, friends and family.”

GoDaddy has entered an agreement with Donuts, Inc., the registry responsible for these 14 new names, to offer pre-registrations to the public.

“We have seen the excitement from customers steadily increasing as this pre-registration day approached,” said Donuts co-founder and Executive Vice President for Sales and Marketing Dan Schindler. “Since we have been engaged in talks with GoDaddy, we have felt their passion for providing top-level service to their customers. GoDaddy is focused on being the place small businesses go to create their digital identities and these new domains are going to provide many new options for businesses.”

After pre-registration closes and general registration opens, GoDaddy will work to capture the domain name from the registry. When successful, the pre-registered domain name will appear in the customer’s account, signalling the request has been secured. If multiple people requested the same domain name, it will be put to auction for those competing in the pre-registration step. If GoDaddy is unable to secure the domain name, customers will receive a full refund, less any application fees.

TLD Hopping Pirate Bay Seeks World Where Domains Irrelevant

The Pirate Bay this week was forced to change its TLD from .sx (Sint Maarten) to .ac (Ascension Island) after pressure from the Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN. And this was only eight months after it was forced to change from .se (Sweden). And it seems TPB, which flagged this as only a temporary move due to the Ascension Island’s links to the United Kingdom, has already moved on to its next TLD – .pe (Peru).

Clearly global anti-piracy groups have TPB in their sights. But TPB is already thinking ahead to their next move saying they have “a new system currently under development [that] will not only make domain names irrelevant, but will herald the arrival of a new generation of hardened file-sharing services,” according to TorrentFreak.

Currently under development, TorrentFReak continues, “is a BitTorrent-powered browser that will enable users to store and distribute The Pirate Bay and other sites without need for central hosting. This means sites will be able to exist in a new and decentralized form with no reliance on a public-facing website.”

“In a message to ‘BREIN and friends,’ The Pirate Bay cautions that while closing down domains may be an irritant today, that loophole won’t be open forever.”

“They should wait for our new PirateBrowser, then domains will be irrelevant,” an insider told TorrentFreak.

“Once that is available then all links and sites will be accessible through a perfectly legal piece of browser software and the rest of it will be P2P, with no central point to attack via the legal system.”

And according to the spokesman this process of attack and adaption, such as Pirate Bay’s move to the cloud last year, is leading to one place – the advent of new and hardened file-sharing networks.

“By their actions they finally brought on the next generation of decentralized services,” the insider concludes.

TorrentFreak is informed that the new system, which is still under development, will appear as a standalone browser and also as Firefox and Chrome plugins. Until then the varied climate of Peru will suffice.

The Pirate Bay Moves Once Again to .PE

A few days ago, we announced that The Pirate Bay’s .SX domain names has been seized,forcing the torrent site to move to a new address on Ascension Island’s .AC ccTLD.

Today, The Pirate Bay moved again to a new domain name: thepiratebay.pe. It seems that the Peruvian domain name is the permanent destination for the torrent site.

Following pressure applied by Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN, The Pirate Bay’s .SX domain name has been seized a few days ago,forcing the torrent site to move to a new address on Ascension Island’s .AC ccTLD.

This is the fifth time The Pirate Bay has relocated. In April,2013, The Pirate Bay moved to Greenland-based domain,than to Iceland ,to .SX and eventually switched to .PE domain.

Eurid Issues 2013 Q3 Report

Eurid, the company behind .EU extension,released its third quarter 2013 progress report.The report shows that the total number of .EU registrations increased in 16 of the 28 EU Member States.

You can read the press release after the jump:

“The .eu top-level domain (TLD) and its registry EURid saw a variety of developments during the third quarter of 2013, the most significant being the certification for the ISO 27001 security standard following an audit by the British Standards Institution on 24 September 2013

EURid has been proactive in Business Continuity and Contingency Management since 2006, when – as one of the first European registries to do so – it introduced a company-wide Business Continuity and Contingency Management program, which has resulted in a yearly business continuity exercise. The ISO 27001 certification is just the most recent demonstration of the registry’s commitment to ensuring security for the .eu top-level domain.

Q3 in numbers

During the third quarter, the total number of .eu registrations increased in 16 of the 28 EU Member States. Ireland, Portugal, Estonia, Malta and Latvia all saw growth of more than 2%. Renewal rates stayed strong during Q3 at an average of 80%.

For more information on Q3 2013, download the full quarterly report.