Thinking of .EU

The expected launch of the .eu tld could be a major problem for some cctld registries that have failed to move with the times. The main problems with growth on a cctld appear to be the cost and the complexity. The cost of .ie is about €50 Euros wholesale. The cost of a .com can be as low as €10. The .ie domain requires paperwork proving that the registrant has some entitlement to the .ie domain. The .com doesn’t. Therefore many companies and more importantly individuals take the cheaper .com route. This is a very important factor in the growth of a new top level domain.

The early days of a domain is riddled with speculative and dubious domain registrations. In the case of .info, one very dubious registration for a high profile webhosting site claims a trademark date of 1984. It can take up to four years for a new domain to settle down to a steady pattern of registrations and deletions. The .eu gtld may got through the same process. The natural losers with .eu will be the cctld registries that make it difficult and very expensive for individuals to register domains. The .eu would provide a more geographically attractive alternative to the blandly global identity of a .com domain.

One of the main claims to fame of these restrictive cctlds is that the cctld does have some element of proof and geographical dependency. But the .eu could equal that geographical argument. But it would not do so with the proof. However the registrant is often more concerned with cost than with domain marketing concepts.

Tags: IrishBlogs, Domains, WebHosting,Internet Statistics,.EU

Written by John McCormac on April 25th, 2005 with comments disabled.
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