An average of 100 .ie domains were registered every day in the first half of the year – a total of 18,179, according to the latest figures from the IE Domain Registry (IEDR).
The IEDR report also revealed there are now 217,374 registered .ie domains in total; representing an almost 6% increase on June 2015, or a 47.8% rise in the last six years.
Corporate bodies and sole traders made up 72% of all .ie registrations between January and June, while overall this sector accounts for 78% of total registrations.
On a regional basis the largest number of .ie registrations was recorded in Leinster, with 11,386, while Munster saw a 3% annual rise to 3,312.
40% of all new .ie registrations in H1 were from Dublin, followed by Cork (8%), Galway (4%), and Limerick (3%).
Last year, .ie was the domain of choice for Irish business owners, significantly ahead of .com, .eu and .org.
When compared with other EU countries, Ireland ranks joint 16 out of 20 for the number of country code domains per 1,000 people, with 46.
By this metric, Ireland ranks ahead of larger countries such as France and Spain, but significantly behind other countries of similar size, like Denmark (232) and Norway (133).
To facilitate increased access to the .ie domain, IEDR consulted the public on a new “secondary market” policy, which will allow the private sale or auction of .ie domains.
Commenting on the research, IEDR Chief Executive David Curtin said: “While our research showed that more and more businesses recognise the importance of an online presence, a small cohort of businesses still remains offline – 55% of this group have no intention of changing this.
“This mentality, coupled with weaknesses in internet infrastructure, may continue to have an adverse impact on future .ie registrations”.
