NEWSFLASH

1,000,000th .be domain name registered

16/02/2010

- Domain name holder Erwin Boekee gets .be for free during next 25 years -

This weekend, DNS BE registered the 1 millionth .be domain name for an end-user. The domain name in question is boekee.be, registered by Erwin Boekee. By way of gift the domain name registration with his present registrar will be paid by DNS BE for the next 25 years.

We ended 2009 with a total of almost 978,000 domain names, a net growth of almost 14 %. The financial and economic crisis has clearly not stopped Belgians from registering a domain name. Of all the holders of a .be website, 70% is effectively established in Belgium. This means that for hundreds of thousands of Belgians, a .be domain name is an established concept.

General manager Jo Van Gorp: "The positive trend we saw in 2009 is clearly continuing this year as well. In January of this year we registered more than 24,000 new .be domain names, which is noticeably more than in the same month in previous years. The 1 millionth domain name is the result of the excellent reputation the .be domain has built up over the years, the enthusiasm and dedication of our employees providing DNS BE's high-quality and innovative services, and our registrars' strong campaigns."

DNS BE's job comprises the management of the domain name zone, i.e. record who registered what domain name, check the transfers, but chiefly: ensure that all domain names are accessible. To put it simply: DNS BE is the central GPS of the Belgian internet.

Brief history: Professor Pierre Verbaeten of the computer sciences department of the K.U. Leuven registered the first .be domain name in 1989. Up until 1994, only 129 domain names had been registered. Since that time the number has increased sharply. At Professor Verbaeten's request, the responsibility for registering the .be domain names was transferred to DNS BE, a non-profit organisation, established especially for this purpose on 2 February 1999 by ISPA, Agoria and Beltug.

Other photos of the presentation to the winner on request.
Video here.
Press contact: Hans Seeuws : hans@dns.be or 016 28 49 70