Record year for Belgian internet registrations

7 January 2005

BRUSSELS – The year 2004 was a record for new “.be” domain name registrations, according to figures released by DNS BE, the company in charge of registrations.

In 2004, 129,493 “.be” web addresses were registered, a 31.4 percent increase over 2003. That brings the total number of “.be” internet sites to 387,260.

In 2004 24 percent of domain names were registered by individuals, compared to less 21 percent a year ago.

“We have exceeded our expectations,” Marc Van Wesemael, general manager of DNS.be, said in a press release announcing the results. “We expect to see further growth for a while.”

Wesemael attributes the increase to a publicity campaign launched by the company. “The public is beginning to understand that a domain name is important to identity on the internet,” he told the free Metro daily newspaper.

DNS BE was created in February 1999 by the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) Belgium, Agoria (a Belgian association representing different branches of industry) and Beltung (the Belgian Telecommunication Users Group) to register and manage “.be” name names.

The company also manages the name services that make it possible to identify computers on the internet by way of a domain name, ensuring that those serves are accessible at all times.

Subject: Belgian news