First Quarter 2009
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EURID’S QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORT First Quarter 2009 www.eurid.eu View over Prague 2 EURID’S QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORT Table of Contents 4 UPDATE 5 FROM THE GENERAL MANAGER 6 ABOUT EURID AND .EU 7 INTERNATIONAL 8 THE .EU DOMAIN 12 THE REGISTRANTS 15 THE REGISTRARS 17 HUMAN RESOURCES 18 THE MANAGEMENT TEAM 19 THE BOARD AND STRATEGIC COMMITTEE FIRST QUARTER 2009 3 Update The .eu top-level domain and its registry, EURid, saw a variety of • Internet Expo, 17-18 February, Stockholm, Sweden developments over the first quarter of 2009. These include the • Innovact, 24-25 March, Reims, France items highlighted below. • 7th European Business Summit, 24-25 March, Brussels, Belgium. New programme launched The Flexible Promo Credit Programme began automatically on 1 Innovative communication January. The programme is similar to a pilot programme which During the first quarter of the year, EURid continued to explore ran last year. Registrars earn one credit for each .eu domain new forms of communication, including a video tutorial and chat name registered during a credit-earning period. Each credit can line. then be used to register one .eu domain name free of charge during a follow-up cash-in period. Registrars choose when The video tutorial was created to help registrars make the most they want a cash-in period to occur, which is what makes the of the new Flexible Promo Credit Programme. The four-minute programme flexible. streaming video included guidelines to help registrars decide which cash-in period might be best for their companies as well Global traveller as the terms and conditions of the programme. More than 60 people from the domain community attended the registrar dinner hosted by EURid on 2 March in Mexico City. The A new registrar chat line was added to the registrar extranet as a dinner, which took place during an ICANN meeting, was one of pilot project. To access the chat line, registrars click on the Live many events EURid took part in during the first quarter. Support icon on the registry.eu home page. The Live Support icon says “online” when a liaison manager is available to chat. Other notable activities during this period included a .eu This gives registrars yet another way to communicate with EURid exhibition at the European Parliament premises on 20 - 21 in addition to email, telephone and fax. January and participation in the following events: 4 EURID’S QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORT From the General Manager The difficult economic times have affected many, including those of us in the domain community. Growth in registrations was somewhat slower over the first quarter of 2009 but .eu registrations did continue to grow. By the end of the first quarter, .eu domain name registrations had increased in nearly every EU country and grown by 48 048 .eu equals quality. domain names, or 1.6%, to three million. Within the European Union, the market for .eu and national domain names was similar “Some values are to the market for gTLD domain names such as .com, .net, .org, .info and .biz. eternal, no matter During downturns it is common for organisations to cut their services or offerings. That is not an option for us. One of our what the economic unique challenges as the .eu registry is to support the roughly 900 accredited .eu registrars in the 23 official EU languages. No other registry has a similar challenge. climate.” We welcome meeting that challenge. But we do not want to stop there. We want to continuously improve our service as well as the .eu infrastructure. That is why we commissioned a video tutorial on the new Flexible Promo Credit Programme, a new form of outreach to our registrars. It is also why we introduced a new chat line as a pilot project. We expect to continue to experiment with new and improved forms of communication to both registrars and the public. Our registrars deserve our best efforts to support them. They, in turn, support registrants who depend on .eu every day. Those users include some of Europe’s best-known companies, such as Bridgestone, the MAN Group, Versace and the UniCredit Group. These companies rely on .eu because it puts them on the map. It Marc Van Wesemael tells the world they are European. As these users know, .eu equals quality. Some values are eternal, no matter what the economic climate. FIRST QUARTER 2009 5 About EURid and .eu EURid is the not-for-profit organisation appointed by the The three organisations operating the national registries for European Commission to operate the .eu top-level Internet Belgium, Italy and Sweden founded EURid in April 2003. Later, domain. The first initiative to establish .eu as a European the organisations operating the TLDs for the Czech Republic and top-level domain (TLD) was taken in 1999 by the European Slovenia also became members. The European Chapter of the Council. Subsequently, EURid was appointed in May 2003 as Internet Society (ISOC) joined EURid in 2006, followed by the the operator of the .eu registry. The actual service contract was BusinessEurope organisation in 2007. signed in October 2004. The .eu TLD was added to the root zone of the Internet Domain Name System in May 2005. Technically EURid’s head office, which is also the regional office for Western speaking, .eu has been in existence since then. Europe, is located just outside Brussels in Diegem, Belgium. There are three other regional offices located in Pisa, Italy; Between 7 December, 2005, and 6 April, 2006, the .eu registry Prague, the Czech Republic; and Stockholm, Sweden. Each began accepting applications for domain names on a limited office provides support for registrars and the general public in basis. Only those individuals and organisations holding legal languages local to its region. protection for a name within a Member State of the European Union were eligible to apply during that time. This stage of phased registration is referred to as the Sunrise Period. On 7 April, 2006, EURid opened the .eu TLD for general registration on a strictly first-come, first-served basis. “UniCredit group is the third-biggest European banking group, with a presence in twenty-three European countries. To me, the .eu domain name carries a very strong subconscious connotation of the best in Europe. Any institution or any company that really wants to express its Europeanness should go for it today, rather than tomorrow.” Marc Beckers, Unicreditgroup.eu 6 EURID’S QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORT International During the first quarter of 2009, EURid participated in the EURid continued to provide updates on .eu via presentations at following events: several of the aforementioned meetings. In addition, EURid took the interim lead of the CENTR-IGF working group and presented • EC workshop on DNSSEC, 5 February, Brussels, Belgium a workshop proposal for the next IGF meeting in Egypt. • Domain Pulse, 12-13 February, Dresden, Germany • ICANN meeting Mexico City, 1-6 March, Mexico City, Mexico • 15th CENTR administrative workshop, 18 March, Barcelona, Spain • 38th CENTR General Assembly, 19-20 March, Barcelona, Spain • CENTR-IGF breakfast meeting, 20 March, Barcelona, Spain. “The .eu domain name was very important to Hyundai Heavy Industries Europe. Our company name says enough: we distribute our machines all over Europe. We moved from Hyundai.be to Hyundai.eu. In recent months we have seen an increase in the number of visitors. The .eu is gaining in popularity.” Jan Coemans, Hyundai.eu FIRST QUARTER 2009 7 The .eu domain Over the first quarter of 2009, the number of .eu registrations Cyprus, Greece and Malta). That market increased by 2.4% over grew by 48 048 domain names, or 1.6%, to three million. The the first quarter when compared with the fourth quarter of 2008. three-millionth .eu domain name was registered on 11 January, It grew by 13.4% year over year when the Q1 2009 is compared 2009. The total number of registrations at the end of the first to Q1 2008. quarter represented an increase of 7.3%, or 206 884 registra- tions, when compared with the total at the end of the first quarter Within the European Union, the market for .eu and national of 2008. domain names was similar to the market for gTLD domain names such as .com, .net, .org, .info and .biz. Statistics from Zooknic The growth in .eu registrations was slower than the growth in show that the number of domain registrations for these gTLDs the national ccTLD market in the EU countries for which data increased by 1.7% over the first quarter when compared with the is available from national registry websites (all except Bulgaria, previous quarter and by 4.4% when compared with Q1 2008. Total .eu domain name registrations by quarter Q3 06 2 249 670 Q4 06 2 444 945 Q1 07 2 606 997 Q2 07 2 469 165 Q3 07 2 585 410 Q4 07 2 720 924 Q1 08 2 836 186 Q2 08 2 832 437 Q3 08 2 920 387 Q4 08 2 995 022 Q1 09 3 043 070 0 500 000 1 000 000 1 500 000 2 000 000 2 500 000 3 000 000 Total .eu registrations by month, 2009 Jan 3 022 673 Feb 3 049 611 Mar 3 043 070 0 500 000 1 000 000 1 500 000 2 000 000 2 500 000 3 000 000 World top ten TLDs .com 80 381 159 .cn 13 843 548 .de 12 684 775 .net 12 187 996 .org 7 567 418 .uk 7 463 345 .info 5 143 996 .nl 3 323 352 .eu 3 043 070 .biz 2 043 883 0 10 000 000 20 000 000 30 000 000 40 000 000 50 000 000 60 000 000 70 000 000 80 000 000 During the first quarter of 2009, .eu maintained its position as the ninth-largest top-level domain in the world.