Launch of .uk is big success

Since yesterday, direct registrations under .uk have become possible. Before that time, English domain names where located at the third-level, under for .co.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk and .org.uk. Nominet, the registry that manages the .uk namespace, has announced that within the first 24 hours already 50.000 domain names had been registered under .uk. This by far outnumbers the first day registrations of any of the new gTLD’s that have been going live earlier this year. The success of .uk clearly shows that, even within the growing offer of new gTLD’s, the country code extensions remain impossible to disregard.

Most of the registrations obviously are for owners of .co.uk domain names, who are activating their domain name directly under .uk. The registry has worked out a “grandfathering” system for holders of domain names under .co.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk and .org.uk so that, for the next 5 years, their domain name can’t by hijacked under .uk by somebody else.

The launch of direct .uk registration was accompanied by a large campaign, including British icon Stephen Fry talking about his website switching to .uk.