Two and a half years after its launch, the “.eu” top-level internet domain confirms its success with the registration of the third million domain, made by a German citizen on January, 11th 2009. These figures rank “.eu” as the fourth most popular internet domain among European country domains and the ninth worldwide.

By promoting a distinctly European online identity .eu helps citizens and businesses to reap the full benefits of the single market. Multinational companies and SMEs, NGOs and think tanks as well as individual Europeans have all adopted .eu to mark their web presence.

.eu has well consolidated its place among the ten largest top-level domains in the world, such as .com, .net. and .org., by reaching the third million domain. Registrations for .eu domains have been steadily growing since its introduction in 2006. In addition, .eu domains enjoy a good reputation: a recent survey carried out for EURid, the registry for .eu, shows that users not only perceive .eu as the genuine European internet identity, but also believe that .eu domains are innovative and modern.

EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding underlined this confidence of European internet users in .eu, and highlighted how the third million registration just a few months before the third anniversary, “indicates how .eu has clearly won public favour: a growing number of internet users are embracing the opportunity to express their European character online. In particular, I am glad to see that an increasing number of small and medium-sized companies have adopted .eu as an integral part of their corporate identity and I am looking forward to seeing more companies taking advantage of .eu in the future."

Most .eu domains have been registered in EU countries with the largest populations and highest internet penetration. Germany continues to lead with 30%, followed by the Netherlands (14%), the United Kingdom (12%), France (8%) and Poland (6%).

.eu, promoting European internet identity

.eu is Europe’s Top Level Domain (TLD), which first opened on December, 7th 2005 to holders of prior rights, but since early April 2006, registration was also open to all EU residents and organisations with a registered seat in the EU. Management of the .eu registry (the database holding all .eu registrations) is entrusted to EURid, an independent not-for-profit organisation.

By its first anniversary in April 2007, 2.5 million .eu domain names were already registered, and another 300,000 domain names were added during the whole year 2007.