IEDR Publish 2012 Domain Figures

IEDR have published their latest annual report which covers the period up to the end of 2012.

Here’s a few of the highlights:

• Renewal rate of 86%
• Total .ie domains at year-end of 182,284, up 5.3% year-on-year
• New .ie domain registrations down 15% on 2011

By way of comparison the .no domain registry (Norway) currently has 588999 domains registered.

In terms of the finances they’ve got no reason to complain:

• Registration fee income €2.6 million
• Operating profit after tax €282,706

The full annual report contains a number of interesting statements.

They’re still making references to McAfee reports on “secure domains”, which is a bit odd, since McAfee hasn’t published one since 2010 (as they admit). Would they still rank as high in 2012 as they did back in 2010?

David Curtin’s report indicates that IEDR still want to get the .ie ccTLD re-delegated to them:

There was no progress in 2012 on the Company’s application to ICANN for the redelegation of the .ie ccTLD to the IEDR, which was submitted in February 2011, accompanied by letters of support from stakeholders in the local Internet community. In order to complete the redelegation request ICANN will need a letter of support from the Irish government.The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources is considering the matter.

Any such redelegation would have to be in accordance with RFC 1591. The .ie ccTLD is still controlled by UCD as the “sponsoring organisation”.

The report also notes that Ireland does not participate in either ICANN or IGF:

Governments across the globe can participate via the Government Advisory Committee (GAC). The GAC role in ICANN was clarified in the Affirmation of Commitments in 2009. In Ireland, Internet Governance is not yet formalised to reflect the international structures. Irish officials do not participate in the IGF or in the ICANN GAC

 

Some other titbits from the report ..

IEDR currently have 17 staff, with a total cost of €1,199,101.

They’ve also got 5 subsidiaries, 4 of which are not trading:

• IENUM Limited – the ENUM registry (active)
• .IE Registry Limited  315315 (not trading)
• Domain Registry IE Limited  314814 (not trading)
• IEDR Limited  316291 (not trading)
• The Irish National Domain Registry Limited 316791 (not trading)

Most of the non-trading companies appear to date from 1999 and it’s not clear why they still exist.

The report also breaks out the registration data a bit and shows, not surprisingly, that the registrations are concentrated around urban hubs:

While it is still possible to register a .ie domain name via IEDR directly, most .ie domain names are registered via a registrar. The market share of the top 5 registrars is 68% of the market:

IEDR do not publish the registrar ranking, but it’s not hard to “reverse engineer” it:

1. Blacknight
2. Register365
3. Letshost
4. Irish Domains
5. Hosting Ireland

(see here for more details)

A quirky chart in the report shows the distribution of .ie domain names by length ie. how many characters are used in the domain name:

I’m not sure what the longest .ie domain name currently registered is, as the one they mentioned in the report is no longer registered.

You can download the full report here IEDR – Annual Report & Review 2012

 

 

Related articles

• IEDR Appoint New Registration Services Team Lead (internetnews.me)