France’s official ccTLD .FR grew 3.7 percent last year and reached 3,428,951 registrations, Online Domain reports citing Afnic. In total, the domain gained 123,655 new registrations. The growth was lower than in 2018 (when it was 4.4 percent), but it’s still significantly higher than the numbers on the French domain market in general.
But perhaps it is more valuable to see that the ccTLD is popular and respected among the French. France is well known for its patriotism and ambition to counter the expansion of American culture, for example, in music or cinema. This may also stretch to the internet: at the end of last year, an independent polling institute (MV2) conducted a poll where respondents had to name TLDs they know: 36.7 percent named .FR first, while only 29.5 percent named .COM first. Research carried out by Afnic at the beginning of the year showed that 52 percent of French small- and medium-sized businesses prefer .FR domains, while only 40 percent prefer .COM.
