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.

A Thirst for Domain Names in Germany…

We know that Germans are major consumers of beer and bratwurst….Oktoberfest anyone?  But did you know that Germany is also a powerhouse when it comes to worldwide domain registrations. For instance, the country’s .DE ccTLD (country-code Top-Level Domain) is the largest ccTLD in the world.  Here are some interesting insights into the .DE ccTLD, as well as, the progressive domain name market in Germany:

• Germany’s .DE ccTLD is the largest ccTLD in the world with 13,778,408 domains registered. In fact, .DE is the second largest domain extension next to .COM – Click here for the most recent statistics on ccTLDs.
• Almost half of all .DE domains are hyphenated (unlike in North America where hyphenated domains are not very popular, the language semantics of German make hyphens more natural)
• In Germany, the .DE ccTLD is king, meaning .DE is much more popular than .COM when choosing a domain
• Direct navigation is still very popular in Germany. Many people will type a name followed by .DE into the browser directly.
• Germany has 65 million Internet users, the highest among the member states of the European Union.  Most German users are very Internet-savvy.
• Germany has one of the largest domain aftermarkets. It is dominated by one large player, SEDO.
• .DE is the most popular ccTLD in the aftermarket for domain names.  Year-to-date, some significant sales include:  Software.de (235,000 Euros), Free-SMS.de (115,000 Euros) and Website.de (101,150 Euros). Source: DNJournal

Top 20 Cities and Regions with the most domains in 2009:

.DE at a Glance:
Available Domains: .de
Pricing:  View pricing
Requirements: Local presence required
Registry: DENIC
Registration Period: 1 month, 1 year

In addition to offering Trustee Services for .DE registrations (local presence for Non-German entities), HEXONET is pleased to be able to offer “monthly” billing for .DE domains. This feature offers tremendous advantages for both novice, as well as professional domainers. Click here to learn more.  Lastly, HEXONET recently has become one of the first registrars worldwide to be able to offer DNSSEC for .DE registrations.  We highly suggest all our customers to read up on DNSSEC and its importance.