AFNIC, the official registry operator of France’s .FR country-code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD), has completed their public consultation on opening the .FR domain to the rest of the European Union. Though the liberalization of .FR is not yet determined, if approved, the roll out will be for late 2011. Given this potentially great opportunity for .FR domains, HEXONET would like to take this opportunity to provide you with a quick overview of this ccTLD.

Overview:

• Current number of registered .FR domains stands at 1.8 Million
• Between 2008 and 2009, the .FR ccTLD grew at 25% (compared to other ccTLDs which averaged only 8%)
• According to AFNIC, since registrations opened to individuals in France in June 2006, and thanks to recent improvements in system automation and a reduction in registrars’ prices, .FR has become a strong TLD choice among the French. In fact, personal (non-corporate) registrants now make up a significant part of the overall growth of the .FR registry. Personal registrations now account for 50% of new .FR registrations, which was only 40% a year previously.
• Registration of .FR now accounts for:
  • 33% of all combined domain names registrations in France;
  • 80% of all new domain names registrations in France;
  • and the renewal rate for .FR names is very high at around 80%.
• On September 14th, AFNIC kicked off deployment of DNSSEC in France by signing the .FR Top Level Domain.
• The secondary market in France is underdeveloped compared to neighboring countries. However, in January 2010 the domain – Credit.FR – sold for €587,500 euros (approx. $785,000 USD), which is a good sign the after market for .FR is growing.

We at HEXONET believes the .FR ccTLD has tremendous growth potential, especially if the public consultation leads to a more open registration policy.  In the meantime, for those customers who reside outside of France and who are interested in registering .FR ccTLDs, HEXONET offers a trustee service for fast and easy registration …  more details.

	HEXONET will be attending DOMAINfest next month in Prague, Czech Republic.  Founded and hosted by DomainSponsor, the domain monetization division of Oversee.net, the DOMAINfest conference brings domain industry and Internet professionals together to learn, network, and do business.Before the upcoming DOMAINfest, HEXONET would like to take this perfect opportunity to feature the .CZ ccTLD, the official country-code Top-Level Domain for the Czech Republic.

Overview:

• The .CZ registry is operated by CZ.NIC
• Domain name registrations for .CZ continue their strong grow in 2010, with an average of 10,000 domains being registered each month.
  
• Total .CZ registered domains now total over 708,844.
• Domain names are evenly distributed between individual holders and corporate holders – 48% individual / 52% organizations
• CZ.NIC is one of the early adopters of DNSSEC. Domains administered by CZ.NIC allow the use of DNSSEC for securing DNS records.
• Outside of the Czech Republic, Germans registrants register more .CZ domains than any other country (Source: http://www.nic.cz/page/752/cz.nic-issues-domain-report/)
• In 2007, CZ.NIC introduced its new in-house created registry system called FRED.
  
• • The FRED (Free Registry for ENUM and Domains) central registry software was open-sourced with built in support for smaller registries.
  • Smaller and starting registries can operate their domain in a system designed for the Czech domain which, thanks to its parameters and capacity, is capable of handling much higher volumes of domain names than currently registered in the ccTLD.
  • In 2009 the FRED system was deployed to operate the Tanzanian national domain (.tz). Following the launch of FRED in Angola in 2008, this system now runs domain administration in two African countries. (source: CZ.NIC)
  • Registrars are very pleased with FRED as it has sped up and simplified the registration process significantly.

Trends & Future Outlook:

• The domainer market in the Czech Republic is very active. In fact, the Czech Association of Domain Owners  (CADD) highly promotes public awareness of domain names and the buying and selling and use of domain names in business. CADD also supports and defends the interest of its members in their member’s respective areas of business or professional sector.
• CADD also organizes the annual DomainDay event.   http://www.domainday.cz/
• Leading Czech domainer, Jan Barta, has just been nominated as a potential Domainers of the Year candidate. Jan is a domain heavyweight in the Czech Republic, who has also been a successful serial entrepreneur with companies like Crazy Tomato (mobile content distribution and marketing for corporations like T-Mobile, O2, Red Bull, KFC, Budweiser, and Coca-Cola) and Elephant Orchestra (monetizing direct navigation search traffic).

CZ at a Glance:

• Available Domains: .cz
• Pricing:  View pricing
• Requirements: Company registration number (any country), DOB of administrative contact, and VAT (if applicable).
• Registry: CZ.NIC
• Registration Period: 1-10 yrs
• IDN capable: No

As HEXONET’s primary foriegn office is based in Vancouver, Canada, we thought we would take the opportunity to share some insight on CIRA and the .CA ccTLD (country-code Top-Level Domain).

Overview:

• The .CA registry is operated by CIRA (Canadian Internet Registration Authority),  a not-for-profit corporation
• The .CA registry was created in 1987 by volunteers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver.
• The registry was officially transferred to the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) on December 1, 2000.
• .CA domain names are reserved for Canadian persons, organizations and entities that meet CIRA’s Canadian Presence Requirements
• Whois privacy is enabled by default for domains registered to individuals (WHOIS privacy can be disabled through CIRA’s provided web portal).  Registrations by corporate entities are shown.
• There are now 1,457,488 .CA domains registered.

Trends & Future Outlook:

• In 2009, 27 per cent of all domain registrations in Canada where .CA, second only to .COM.
• The .CA registry has enjoyed considerable growth, in spite of the recent global economic woes, and between 2007 and 2009, .CA registrations grew by 16 per cent, significantly higher than the six per cent annual global growth rate of generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs). (Source: CIRA)
• The aftermarket for .CA domains continues to grow every year. For example, this summer, Poker.ca sold for $400,000.
• Some of the world’s largest domainers including Kevin Ham, Garry Chernoff and Frank Schilling hail from Vancouver.  The popular T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Domain Conference and Expo was recently held in Vancouver
• 2009 marked the launch of the DOAC (Domain Owners Association of Canada).  The the mission of the Domain Owners Association of Canada (DOAC) is to provide a collective voice for individuals and corporations in the Canadian domain industry including domain owners, registrars, domain parking providers, lawyers, advertising agencies and the media.
• CIRA has committed to the full deployment of DNSSEC, the security extensions for DNS, and has been conducting extensive research and analysis into the technical and operational impact of signing the .CA zone file. The roll-out is anticipated in the later part of 2011.

What Do you Think?
Currently, .CA domains names are reserved for Canadian persons, organizations and entities that meet CIRA’s Canadian Presence Requirements. With many large ccTLDs abolishing this requirement in recent years, do you think that CIRA should also remove these restrictions?  This week’s DomainNameWire features a guest article written my prominent domain name attorney Zak Muscovitch.  The article outlines his argument as to why the .CA ccTLD needs to be liberalized. We would like to hear your comments regarding this topic.