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September 3, 2009

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A while ago we already told you that Eurid (.eu registry) was going to introduce .eu IDN domain names at the end of September. This introuduction has been postponed until the beginning of December.

Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) are domain names that contain characters such as letters with accents and characters in non-Latin languages such as Greek. For example, with IDN the registration of the domain name www.café.eu becomes possible while you can now only register www.cafe.eu.

You can read our previous article about the introduction of .eu IDN domain names here.

Right now the release of the .mx extension has passed on to the landrush. This period has started on September 1st and will end on October 31st. During this landrush, everyone who wishes to do so, can register a .mx domain name. However, there’s one important matter that should be taken into account.

During the landrush, different prices will be used by the .mx registry. The price of a .mx name requested on September 1st will be significantly higher than an application that only happens of few days later. After the first day, the price will decrease periodically until 31 October 2009. The current price can be found on our website.

The European extension, .eu, keeps doing well. In July 2009 66,129 new .eu names were registered. This is a rise of 15% compared to July 2008.

‘We’re very pleased the third quarter took of so well for .eu. This is a reminder of the strong value of the .eu domain,’ says Marc Van Wesemael, General Manager of Eurid (the .eu registry). ‘Moreover we also notice that people who register a .eu name want to keep it and keep using it,’ adds Van Wesemael.

If we look at the numbers, Van Wesemael seems to be right. During the second quarter of 2009, 81% of the .eu names were renewed. Moreover for only 1 out of 100 .eu names a ownerchange (a so-called trade) was requested. Last year, a trade was requested for 1 out of 30 .eu names.