The EURid registry, which manages the common national domain of the EU countries, .EU, has published its 2018 report saying it was managing 3,684,750 .EU domains as of December 31, 2018, down by 130,305 over the year. Moreover, this is the lowest figure for the .EU domain since 2012. Part of the decline is due to the registry’s tighter crackdown on illegal use of domain names. Over the past year, over 36,000 names have been suspended for abuse in the .EU domain.
However, analysts say the main reason for the drop is Brexit, or the UK’s decision to leave the EU. Earlier, EURid notified UK-based registrants that they stand to lose their domains after Brexit is officially executed. Although it is still unclear when this might happen, many Britons chose to abandon their domains in the .EU zone in advance or did not renew their expiring registrations. According to preliminary estimates, this could strip .EU of tens of thousands of domain names.
The decrease in the total number of registrations has led to a decline in the company’s financial performance. The report says its 2012 revenues were 12.7 million euros, down from 13.3 million a year earlier. Its net profit declined from 2 to 1.7 million euros.
