EURid has taken a closer look at the distribution of .eu registrations among its registrars and has found that 65 % of domain name registrants chose a registrar from their own country, 18 % chose a registrar from a different country in the European Union, and 17% chose a registrar located outside the EU.

Registrants in Germany, Poland and Lithuania were the ones most likely to use a national registrar.

In the European Union, registrars in Cyprus, Denmark and Luxembourg were the ones with the largest share of their business originating from outside the country. Reciprocal cross-border registrant-registrar pairings (meaning that many registrants from “country x” chose a registrar in “country y” and vice-versa) were noted in the cases of Belgium/France, Germany/Austria, Germany/Denmark, The Netherlands/Belgium, Germany/United Kingdom, Germany/France and Denmark/Sweden.

As for registrars based outside of the European Union, Indian registrars held 60% of the Bulgarian .eu registration market, while registrars in the US held 34% of the Portuguese market.

At the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) conference, dotMobi, the registrar for the .mobi domain, announced plans to expand a free membership scheme for developer platforms to Africa.

Speaking in front of Kenyan businesspeople present at the conference, representatives from dotMobi announced their plans to offer free membership to African developers, in order to expand their horizons. Currently, developers have to pay membership fees.

“There are several benefits of using .mobi; developers can access tools that rate Web sites on whether mobile users will navigate them with ease and the changes needed”, said Francesco Cetraro, dotMobi manager for business development and sales, quoted by Computerworld.

He added that the purpose of expanding the mobile format in African countries was to offer a better mobile experience for users.

“We are willing to work with country code Top Level Domain managers in Africa to offer .mobi; we are not competing, we provide improved mobile user experience,” he added.

The ICANN conference, currently being held in Nairobi, Kenya, hosts presentations and discussions from dotMobi, the World Wide Web Consortium and Harvard Law School, showcasing opportunities available for developers and Internet businesses.

Source: iTnewsAfrica.com