.au hits 1.5 million registrations

AusRegistry, the .au Domain Name Registry Operator, last week announced that the .au namespace had reached 1.5 million registrations, placing the .au namespace as one of the most successful ccTLDs around the world.

As AusRegistry International's parent company, this is a tremendous achievement for AusRegistry who work closely with the AusRegistry International team to share the skills and technology that we use around the world for our global clients.

Registrations in com.au and net.au make up approximately 96% of the 1.5 million registered .au domain names with the remaining .au domains shared amongst other specialised second level namespaces such as edu.au, gov.au, org.au, asn.au, id.au and info.au.

"The popularity of .au is clearly evident when comparing registrations in .au with registrations in other ccTLDs. In many cases .au registrations exceeds those of countries with populations three times that of Australia" said group CEO, Adrian Kinderis. "This is testament of the strength of the .au brand in Australia and a great achievement for all members of the Australian domain name Industry".

A recent domain name market report detailed a 15% decline in global domain name registrations in Q2 2009 compared to the previous year which is symptomatic of the world economy as a whole.

Whilst the Global Financial Crisis has slowed the growth of the .au namespace, the slowdown was less than industry experts had predicted and certainly much lower than many other registries had experienced. Over recent months, growth rates in .au show the namespace continuing to break free from the Global Financial Crisis and is moving quickly back to the growth levels seen before the crisis.

Since taking over the operation of the .au country code Top Level Domain Name Registry in 2002, AusRegistry's advanced technology and marketing initiatives have seen the .au domain space grow from approximately 270,000 domains to the 1.5 million active names under management today. Whilst it took almost three years for .au to grow from 500,000 domain name registrations to 1,000,000 (December 2004 to November 2007) it has taken less than two years to grow the namespace from 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 registrations., "If this trend continues, we should hit the two million mark in little over a year." says Kinderis.

About AusRegistry International

AusRegistry International is a wholly owned subsidiary of AusRegistry Pty Ltd, the current Registry Operator for the .au ccTLD. The organisation was formed to leverage AusRegistry's DNS expertise and infrastructure and to provide the platform for the innovative usage of this technology in the provision of 'World's Best Practice' Domain Name Registry Services on a global basis. AusRegistry International are heavily involved in the Domain Name Industry in a consultative, advisory and technical capacity and are focused on providing superior Registry Services for new gTLD applicants and ccTLD Registry Operators.

Media Contact:

Axia Jarnblad
Marketing Assistant
AusRegistry International Pty Ltd
Ph: +61 3 9866 3710
Fax: +61 3 9866 1970
Email: axia.jarnblad@ausregistry.com.au
Web: www.ausregistry.com