Congratulations - UK domain registrations reach 5 million

Nominet, the .uk domain name registry, is celebrating reaching the five million mark for .uk domain name registrations. The landmark registration, Hosepipebanbuster.co.uk, was registered on 16 May 2006 by Watermatics Ltd, an irrigation company based in Hertfordshire.

When founded in 1996, Nominet registered 2,000 .uk registrations in its first month of operation. Now the world’s fourth largest Internet registry, it handles 144,000 registrations, equivalent to the population of its hometown Oxford, every month. 57 per cent of domain names registered are associated with a live website, which means that there are almost 3 million active .uk websites online.

“In the run up to our 10th anniversary celebrations, we are delighted to reach the landmark of 5 million .uk registrations,” said Lesley Cowley, Chief Executive at Nominet. “The UK market for domain names remains incredibly buoyant, with companies increasingly building a web presence into their central business strategy. We look forward to a bright future for .uk domain names.”

50 per cent of .uk domain names link to e-commerce or business information sites, with a further 16 per cent displaying ‘under construction’ holding pages for businesses or individuals. There are also around 170,000 .uk domain names registered for personal use, with a rise in demand attributed to the increase in broadband use and people using the Internet at home. There is also a strong renewal rate of about 70 per cent, which suggests that .uk websites are being used and are valuable to the people that own them.

Source: http://www.net4now.com/?p=3585