The company that manages and maintains Ireland’s official country domain name, .ie, has today reported that 2017 was the strongest year on record for new .ie domain registrations.
IE Domain Registry (IEDR) claims 39,523 new .ie domains were registered in 2017—an average of 108 a day. The figure is a 14% increase on 2016 and the best single year for new registrations. There are now 237,412 .ie domains in the database, a 7% increase on the previous year end and an almost 30% increase on five years ago.
The increase was driven by nationwide demand, with new registrations up in all but four counties on the island of Ireland. Corporate bodies and sole traders made up the majority of new .ie registrations (67%) in 2017. Leinster accounted for two-thirds of new registrations in 2017 (24,776), followed by Munster (20%, 7,347), Connacht (9%, 3,318) and Ulster (5%, 1,920).
In Ulster, new registrations increased by 23% on the previous year; in Connacht by 21%; in Munster by 19%; and in Leinster by 14%.
On a county level, Dublin registered the most new .ie domains with 43% of the total (16,065 domains), a 13 percent increase on 2016. The capital was followed by Cork (9%, 3,280 domains) and Galway (5%, 1,807 domains), recording 16% and 19.5% year-on-year increases respectively.
Fermanagh registered the smallest number of .ie domains on the island of Ireland (39). Leitrim registered the smallest number in the Republic of Ireland (171), although both were increases on the previous year.
The report shows that Ireland still lags behind its European neighbours for the number of country domains per 1,000 people. With 50 .ie domains, Ireland is 18th out of 22, ahead of France and Spain, but behind countries with smaller or similar populations like Lithuania (64 .lt domains per 1,000 people), Norway (141 .no domains) and Denmark (234 .dk domains).
Commenting on the 2017 report, Chief Executive of IEDR, David Curtin said, "More than two-thirds of new .ie domains in 2017 were registered by businesses, a 6 percent increase on the previous year. This signals a strong, growing economy with enterprises that have the confidence and willingness to invest in their online presence and digital processes. Online address registrations are often recognised as a forward indicator of economic growth and entrepreneurship."
He added, "Encouragingly, .ie domain registrations are spread out across the country. While urban centres dominate the database, we have seen significant year-on-year increases in registrations in Munster, Connacht and Ulster."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
