Munster registered a total of 9,066 new .ie domains in 2019, bringing the total number of .ie domains in the province to 47,977 – up 7.94% year on year.
Behind Dublin (18,966 new registrations in 2019), Cork recorded the second highest figure for new .ie domain registrations in 2019, at 4,055. Limerick recorded a total of 1,326 new .ie registrations, Waterford 971 and Tipperary 824.
Over the course of the last decade, .ie enjoyed a 10 percentage point swing in market share of Ireland’s hosted domains from .com, currently at 50%, whereas .com’s market share lies at 33%.
This is according to the latest edition of the .ie Domain Profile Report published by IE Domain Registry, the company that manages and maintains Ireland’s country domain.
A decade of growth
At the end of 2019, the total number of .ie domains in the national database was 280,958, up from 154,918 at the end of 2010 (+81%) and 262,140 at the end of 2018 (+7%). 50,167 new .ie domains were registered in 2019.
61% of all new .ie domains in 2019 were registered by companies or the self-employed. Almost 80% of the total .ie database comprises these two types.
In an era of increasing social media restrictions, new .ie registrations by individuals rose by +27% last year as more seek a private digital space that they fully control.
Other key findings
Reflecting the times, ‘smart’, ‘green’, and ‘tech’ were among the most used words in new .ie domains in 2019, with other popular words being ‘insurance’, ‘house’, ‘web’, ‘supplies’ and ‘energy’.
198 domains featured a fada on a vowel in 2019, up from 144 in 2018 (+38% YoY). 51% of .ie websites now have an SSL security certificate (+45% YoY). Google downgrades search results for websites without SSL certificates.
422 .ie domains were put up for sale on the ‘secondary market’ in 2019, up from 291 in 2018 (+45% YoY). This indicates strong demand for the .ie brand.
The .ie Domain Profile Report is a biannual analysis of the .ie database.
