Ireland’s internet domain registry IEDR have recorded a rise of 39% in the registrations of the .IE ccTLD in the second quarter of 2018. This rise, IEDR say, is due to liberalization of the eligibility rules for the ccTLD that were implied early this year in March.
According to IEDR, a total of 154 new domain name registrations were recorded every day with an increase in 31 of the 32 counties of Ireland. They say that the majority (62.5%), of new .IE domains were registered by businesses which included corporate bodies as well as independent businesses and traders.
Explaining this, David Curtin, CEO of IEDR, commented:
Virtually every county in Ireland recorded an increase in .IE domain registrations in the first half of 2018. The majority were registered by corporate bodies and sole traders. This is good news: an increase in online activity among businesses is a leading indicator of Ireland’s broader economic growth.
IEDR say that this surge in the rise of .IE ccTLD registrations is also a result of businesses moving away from generic, anonymous email addresses, like eircom.net or gmail.com to newer avenues in order to reach a specific target audience. They say that this change in attitude among businesses coupled with the liberalization policy has called for a reduction in the registry fee charged to registrars.
Michele Neylon, CEO of Blacknight, the company which handled the largest share of those new registrations, said:
It’s no surprise that simpler registration rules have led to a growth in registration volumes. We knew that would happen.
We had long argued that cumbersome registration requirements were needlessly impeding the growth of the Irish national domain. We’re delighted to be proved right, and we welcome the vote of confidence shown by the public in the .IE namespace.