1,000,000 .be domain names
In 2009, .be celebrated its 20th anniversary. At the beginning of this year, the millionth .be domain name was registered. The Belgian extension remains popular. In 2009, for the sixth year in a row, the number of new .be reached a new record peak (232,746). That is 4.4% more new registrations than in 2008.
What is surprising is that the percentage of individuals who register a domain name grows. In 2008, it was still 30% and in 2009, this percentage went up to 34%. DNS.be, the managing entity of the Belgian domain names, acclaimed this increase: “The benefits of having one’s own domain name are considerable. If you have your own e-mail address, things are much easier e.g. when switching Internet provider, because you do not miss a single e-mail and you do not have to notify all your contacts each time about your new e-mail address.”
In comparison to its neighbouring countries, Belgium has less domain names. Nederland has 3.7 million .nl domains, Germany has 13.4 million .de domains and France has 1.6 million .fr domain names.