This month, the German country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), .DE celebrated its 30th birthday with over 16.1 million domain names registered. The ccTLD has been managed by DENIC for 20 years.
Reports say that .DE gains about 150,000 registrations yearly and about one-third of the .DE domains are registered for private individuals, roughly two-thirds for enterprises, and a remaining three percent for institutions and organizations, such as authorities, associations, clubs and other initiatives.
The Registry announced through its website that the number of domain holders as of today amounts to 7.8 million. They also said that high security and wide reach combined with low prices make .DE domains attractive for domain holders from outside Germany. About 1.1 million domains under .DE are registered from abroad. .DE domain registrations come from different countries, mostly from the USA or the Netherlands.
DENIC says that one in five Germans has registered a .DE domain and it’s the third largest ccTLD after .TK, and then .CN with 19.5 million registrations.