jmccormac - 2:10 pm on Jun 27, 2010 (gmt 0)

The .eu ccTLD is really not a true ccTLD in that it has approximately 27 constituent markets. It only appears big due to the cumulative registration volume. In real terms it is a third or fourth choice TLD in the EU countries and it is rarely, if ever, used as a primary brand. Broken down on a country by country basis, the numbers of .eu domains registered in an EU country would be between 5% to 15% of that country's ccTLD registrations. The last quarter's Eurid report had the country breakdowns by registrar which is far more accurate an indication of the numbers of .eu domains registered in each country. The figure for Ireland was about 8K which ties in with the numbers of .eu domains on Irish hosters. The Irish .eu figure on the Eurid website is artificially inflated by Canadian and US cyberwarehousing operations and direct navigation operations using Irish front companies to warehouse their .eu domains. The UK's registrar .eu figure is around 59K and its figure on the Eurid website is also inflated by non-EU cyberwarehousing and direct navigation operations. There is a significant level of brand protection registrations in .eu ccTLD but these domains are often not even set up in DNS and where they are set up, they point to the real ccTLD or .com website of the business.

Regards...jmcc