Milestone 6 million domain names in the Netherlands

On Thursday 18 June, the Netherlands registered the 6 millionth .nl domain name. This is a major milestone for our small country. It makes us the fifth largest country domain name in the world.

During the Corona crisis, the number of registrations rose faster than expected, so we have reached this milestone of 6 million domain names earlier than expected, according to Stichting Internet Domeinregistratie Nederland (SIDN).

In the past few months, no less than 250 thousand new .nl domain names have been registered. No other country recorded so many registrations during the Corona period.

Most nl domain holders are located in the capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam. Followed closely by the university cities of Groningen, Enschede, Nijmegen and Eindhoven.

First domain registration in the Netherlands in 1986

On May 1, 1986, the very first .nl domain was registered by the Center for Mathematics and Computer Science. This made the Netherlands the first active country domain outside the United States.

Of course, other countries also followed quickly. But to this day, the Netherlands is still the fifth largest country domain in the world. The countries ahead are China, Germany, United Kingdom and Tokelau.

Initially, only companies could register a domain name, but since 2003 it has been possible for everyone. Both companies and individuals.

This success was reflected in the numbers. In 2003, we tapped a registration of 1 million. Nine years later, in 2012, the .nl registration counter stood at 5 million.

In the years that followed, domain registration declined worldwide. Part of the reason for this was the advent of social media and apps for cell phones.

Dutch very active online

The Dutch are known to be very busy people. This is clear from our online search behavior. Every day, no fewer than 2.5 billion searches are made.

Not all domains registered by Dutch people are .nl domains. Nevertheless, the .nl extension is the favorite for Dutch companies and individuals. The nl domain has a market share of no less than 64%.

Dutch people can also register the unrelated country domains, such as .com, net and shop domain. If we look at the total registration, the Netherlands has more than 1 domain name per 2 inhabitants. We can say that this is extremely high. So we are very active on the Internet.

North-Holland leads in domain registrations

The province of North Holland is in the lead for Dutch domain registration, with a market share of 21.8%. The second province to register .nl domains is South Holland with 19.3%, followed by North Brabant with 13.3%.

Gelderland and Utrecht are respectively number four and five. Zeeland is the least active in terms of registration. Here the percentage is only 1.3%.

Every year about 850,000 new domain names are registered, but 800,000 are also cancelled. This is about all the extensions we can register.

Dutch domain name longest in the world

The Dutch are straightforward and like clear communication. But when it comes to registering domain names, we are not short and sweet. Indeed, nl domain names are the longest in the world with an average number of characters of 16. For other country names, the average is 13 characters.

Some people register very long names. A total of 16 .nl domain names were registered with the maximum number of characters, namely 63 characters!

To give you an example of how long this is, here is an example: "registertodayyourdomainnameatMyHostingPartner.nl"

Most expensive domain name in the Netherlands

The most expensive nl domain name ever sold for as much as 2.5 million euros is vakantie.nl. It is therefore a very good commercial name. With only 8 characters it is a short and powerful domain name.

Want to register a domain name?

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MijnHostingPartner has a worldwide coverage, so don't wait any longer and register your domain from now on.Domain registration is the basis of online success!