The growing attraction to .nl

[Sedo BeNeLux]

Just a copy of our newsletter 08.04.2008

The Growing Attraction to .NL

The Netherlands; famous for wooden shoes, Amsterdam, cheese, the national soccer team and of course their open minded attitudes, was also one of the first countries to register a Country Code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD). In 1986, the domain cwi.nl was registered by the national research institute for mathematics and computer science in the Netherlands and is still in existence today. Not only is the .nl one of the first ccTLDs, it is also one of the most successful overall TLDs available. In fact, accordingly to the Stichting Internet Domeinregistratie Nederland (SIDN), 87% of business owners still prefer owning .nl domains over generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs).

Today, more than 2.6 million .nl domains are registered and the SIDN has reported more than 1,000 new registered domains each day. This results in a top 4 notation in the international ranking, after Germany, England and China. With this kind of global standing, the popularity of the .nl may soon rival that of the Netherland’s famous wooden shoes.

So, what makes the Netherlands an attractive market? For starters they have a well developed Information and Communication Technology (ICT)/Hosting business and liberal policies. Since the .nl has become such a staple in the domain market, they can also bank on their strong brand awareness. To top things off the .nl internet penetration is very high and their domain sales on the secondary market are still considered to be on the low end.

The Secondary .nl Market at sedo

In 2007, the world caught wind of the .nl potential and the numbers of domains sold through sedo increased 166%. The average price was 1,500 EUR (which is a 50% increase from the previous year) and the highest public bid for an .nl domain was 46,000 EUR for veiling.nl (the Dutch translation of auction). These prices are still relatively inexpensive, but as the demand continues to increase, this will no longer be the case.

If you interested in getting in on the action, Sedo will host a premium domain auction for the Benelux on May 2nd 2008, which involves .nl, .be and .lu top domains. Some examples are huren.nl (Dutch for rent), bio.nl and umts.nl. Don´t miss this chance to invest in these top domains! For questions about the Benelux market, please contact our team directly at info@sedo.nl.

[Herakles_NL]

Couldn't agree more ;-)

At this moment 2.868.482 .nl names have been registered and we expext to reach the magic '3' late 2008. Some nice stats can be found at www.extensiemonitor.nl and www.sidn.nl (the latter being our .nl registry's website)

[Banned: domain newbie]

where can you scanbulk them for availability ??

moniker does not support

[Herakles_NL]

try our bulk checktool at eurodns.com

(the amount of whois searches is limited by the Dutch registry)

[FuseFX]

I am so glad that .nl is doing well. It was a pleasure to meet Roelof and Bart at ICANN New Delhi -- amazing guys!