The IE Domain Registry (IEDR), the not-for-profit public organization that manages Ireland’s top level Internet domain, .ie, issued its annual reported for 2011 on the .ie ccTLD.

Among the financial and operational highlights for 2011 were:

• New .ie domain registrations were 39,398 (36,587 in 2010) – up 8%
• Total .ie domains at year-end of 173,145 – 13% increase year-on-year
• Registration fee income of €2.66 million – up 3.8%
• Registry operating costs – up by 6.75%
• Operating profit of €357,967 – down 9.8% (excluding prior year exceptional credit)
• Increased .ie market share to 42.8% (compared to .com and .eu) – (41.5% in 2010)
• Decrease in non renewal (deletion) rate from 14% (2010) to 12.8% (2011)
• Members’ Funds exceeded €3 million for first time – €3.3 million at year end

New .ie registrations during the year of 39,938 represent an increase of 7.7% when compared to 2010 (36,587), but were offset by 19,672 non-renewals (deletions), resulting in a net addition to the .ie database of 19,726 – which is a 12.9% increase in the .ie namespace to 173,145 domains by the end of 2011.

At 38 domains per 1,000 of the population .ie is comparable to other ccTLDs such as France and Italy.

The .ie non-renewal (deletion) rate of 12.8% reflects the shortening domain life cycle, as domain names are increasingly used for specific promotional events and information programmes on .ie websites, nevertheless this non-renewal rate remains low by international standards.

“New registration growth in the first half of 2012 is down by 14% compared to the same period in 2011.”

“This reflects a European-wide slowdown and ongoing difficult trading conditions in the Irish economy, in particular for the SME retail community.”

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