The non-profit organization IEDR, the registry of the Irish Country Code Top-Level Domain .IE, has reported its results from the first half of 2021. In the first six months of the year, the domain zone saw 33,815 new registrations, which is the best result in the entire history of the domain, delegated back in 1988, Domain Incite reports. As of June 30, the total number of domain names registered in .IE was 324,074, or up 9.6 percent on last year.
The pattern of registrations shows that the ccTLD benefited from the COVID-19 lockdown measures imposed by the Irish government. In the first quarter of 2021, Ireland had strict lockdown restrictions in place, and the number of new registrations surged by 34 percent as local businesses rushed to move their operations online. In the second quarter, the restrictions were lifted or eased, and the number of registrations fell by 22 percent, which, however, did not hurt the impressive overall result.
