Strange increase in the registration of expired .eu

[gprod]

Lately, I've noticed that a large portion of dropped .eu domains are getting registered very quickly. I haven't seen any changes in .eu sales, at least on Namebio, nor do the domains have any special metrics. So, in your opinion, what do you think is driving this interest?

 

[Armageddon]

Answer is NO interest
Just someone play with his money thinkg will become millionare

 

[pb]

What kinds of domains are being registered? What happens to them afterwards? These two datasets should answer your question with great approximation.

 

[td11]

Lately, I've noticed that a large portion of dropped .eu domains are getting registered very quickly. I haven't seen any changes in .eu sales, at least on Namebio, nor do the domains have any special metrics. So, in your opinion, what do you think is driving this interest?

Most .eu domain names are sold through DAN so you can't see them on namebio.

 

[jmcc]

The .EU is a truckstop or gateway TLD where users go before being directed to a registrant's primary website in another TLD. Development in .EU is around 18%. The .EU seems to run a lot of promotions but it just cannot compete with local European ccTLDs. I'm not sure about the number of reregs that you are seeing but it might be SEO related. The .EU really isn't a single market but a composite markets of the countries in the European Union. There may be some national characteristics to these reregs.

Regards...jmcc

 

[DNAAS]

I am surprised .eu is not more popular when similar .com are so expensive.
Some of the European tlds only allow Europeans to own

 

[jmcc]

I am surprised .eu is not more popular when similar .com are so expensive.
Some of the European tlds only allow Europeans to own

There's a long story behind that. It was intended to be the replacement/alternative for .COM in the European Union but the European Commission politicians screwed things up. (The main details are in the free to read pages of the book in my sig.) Basically, the EC and its advisors hadn't a clue about what was going on in the domain name business at a global level. They never knew that there was a huge demand for keyword domain names due to Domain Tasting in .COM/NET/ORG. It gave the contract to run the ccTLD to a small European registry with no expertise in running a large gTLD. A few hours into the landrus when the ccTLD went into General Availability, the registry's backend ground to a halt.

The registration rules were gamed and many of the initial .EU registrations were registered by non-Europeans and were up for sale. Most people in the European Union decided to ignore the .EU and concentrate on their local ccTLDs and registrations in the local ccTLDs really took off while the .EU stumbled along. The value of even good keyword domain names (the ones that were not snapped up by non-EU registrants) collapsed and many of the non-EU portfolio registrants ended up dumping them over the few years after the landrush.

In the EU, the local ccTLDs rule and .COM has dropped back to a second choice TLD when it comes to registrations. More new registrations are now in the local ccTLDs each month than in .COM gTLD. There are still some high value .EU sales but what catches a lot of domainers is that it isn't a single language TLD. There are about 26 countries in the European Union and most of them do not use English as a first language.

I think that there's a promo running for cheap (1.99 Euro) registrations at the moment. That might be one reason why there's an uptick in reregs. The echo of the 2006 Landrush can still be seen in the .EU stats over March to June each year as deletions rise. The promotional discounts lessen these losses.

Regards...jmcc

 

[DNAAS]

There's a long story behind that. It was intended to be the replacement/alternative for .COM in the European Union but the European Commission politicians screwed things up. (The main details are in the free to read pages of the book in my sig.) Basically, the EC and its advisors hadn't a clue about what was going on in the domain name business at a global level. They never knew that there was a huge demand for keyword domain names due to Domain Tasting in .COM/NET/ORG. It gave the contract to run the ccTLD to a small European registry with no expertise in running a large gTLD. A few hours into the landrus when the ccTLD went into General Availability, the registry's backend ground to a halt.

The registration rules were gamed and many of the initial .EU registrations were registered by non-Europeans and were up for sale. Most people in the European Union decided to ignore the .EU and concentrate on their local ccTLDs and registrations in the local ccTLDs really took off while the .EU stumbled along. The value of even good keyword domain names (the ones that were not snapped up by non-EU registrants) collapsed and many of the non-EU portfolio registrants ended up dumping them over the few years after the landrush.

In the EU, the local ccTLDs rule and .COM has dropped back to a second choice TLD when it comes to registrations. More new registrations are now in the local ccTLDs each month than in .COM gTLD. There are still some high value .EU sales but what catches a lot of domainers is that it isn't a single language TLD. There are about 26 countries in the European Union and most of them do not use English as a first language.

I think that there's a promo running for cheap (1.99 Euro) registrations at the moment. That might be one reason why there's an uptick in reregs. The echo of the 2006 Landrush can still be seen in the .EU stats over March to June each year as deletions rise. The promotional discounts lessen these losses.

Regards...jmcc

Thanks that's really interesting.

Yes I have seen many English words in European tlds. That explains a lot.

 

[jmcc]

Yes I have seen many English words in European tlds. That explains a lot.

There's a number of English language keywords that seem to be registered across all ccTLDs. Many of them are brands, 3Ls or high value keywords. The other side of ccTLDs that is not immediately obvious is the percentage of unique (only appearing in that ccTLD) and no gTLDs) domain names varies across the ccTLDs. Where ccTLDs have open registrations, there will be a small number of numerical registrations from China trhat are gambling or adult content affliates landers.

Regards...jmcc

 

[Andreas B.]

.eu is just not appealing enough.

.de, .fr, .es, .it - none of those website owners, who is present in its local market, want to replace his TLD with .eu

.eu is something for eu-wide english speaking content;
but that is very low.

Either you go big (.com), or you go local.

Not much place inbetween.

 

[jmcc]

.eu is just not appealing enough.

.de, .fr, .es, .it - none of those website owners, who is present in its local market, want to replace his TLD with .eu

.eu is something for eu-wide english speaking content;
but that is very low.

Either you go big (.com), or you go local.

Not much place inbetween.

The .EU is no competition for the local ccTLDs. The typical second choice TLD in the EU is actually .COM. Just from the Irish hosting market stats. the .IE is around 325K. The number of Irish hosted .COMs is around 120.6K. The number of Irish hosted .EUs is around 9.4K. Many of what Eurid claims are Irish .EU registrations are UK registrations. This isn't a price issue as the .EU is around 7 Euro plus VAT. The .IE is around 30 Euro plus VAT.

Germany is the largest part of the .EU market (the number of German regs is around 1M and has been for years) and even there it just cannot compete with .DE ccTLD. The only strange country is Portugal and Eurid (and DNS.pt) have been running a free first year registration promotion for businesses. This has inflated the .EU count for Portugal.

The big problem that .EU faces is that most business is local.

Regards...jmcc

 

[Jannes]

Some registrants have opted for the less restricted .EU.COM, but those domain names have little to no aftermarket value I guess.

 

[jmcc]

Some registrants have opted for the less restricted .EU.COM, but those domain names have little to no aftermarket value I guess.

Not really. The .EU has over 3 million registrations and is widely recognised. Those pseudo-gTLDs like eu.com really don't have the same reach or brand recognition. Those two things matter when it comes to valuation. At least with a ccTLD or gTLD, the domain name is yours for as long as you pay the renewal fees. On pseudo gTLDs, the only thing that the registrant is paying for is a subdomain.

Regards...jmcc