Rise in number of firms going online

THE NUMBER of registered Irish domains rose by 13 per cent to more than 173,000 last year, figures from the IE Domain Registry show.

Last year also saw the registry reach a major milestone, with more than 4,000 domains registered in one month.

The figures showed Ireland’s top-level domain continued to gain subscribers, particularly in the first half of the year, with almost 21,000 registered over the six-month period, a 9.9 per cent rise on 2010, and a further 18,403 domains were registered in the latter half of the year, growing by 5.2 per cent.

In total, there was a 12.9 per cent net increase in the number of registered domains at the end of 2011. About 13 per cent of domains were not renewed last year, compared with 14 per cent in 2010.

Chief executive of the registry, David Curtin, described the registration rates as “strong”, despite the challenging times for businesses. “Much credit is due to our registrar community for their collective efforts in supporting the growth of Ireland’s top-level domain which remains the domain of choice for those registering websites in the Irish market,” he said.

A recent domain industry report found that only two-thirds of Irish businesses had websites, and only 21 per cent of those websites had e-commerce capabilities.

Earlier this year, the registry ran the Optimise initiative as part of a bid to raise awareness among businesses of the benefits and opportunities of going online.

The programme gave 10 small companies a support package of €10,000. A number of other initiatives, including one backed by Google, Blacknight, An Post and the network of County and City Enterprise Boards, have also tried to boost the numbers, offering small firms a free website and domain name for a year.