July 2008

IEDR – 2007 sees significant growth in .ie domains, further infrastructure investment, more price reductions and additional consolidation of financial performance

Download the IEDR 2007 Annual Report here

Highlights:

• .ie registrations up by 29% net in 2007
• .ie domain prices reduced by 13% in 2007
• Fifth successive year of surplus – profit after tax was €0.523 million
• Turnover of €2.3 million
• Further investment to improve the security and resilience of the national namespace
• Continued focus on maintaining cost control
• Personal Domain Names Launched
• Electronic Numbering Registry goes live

Tuesday, 8th July, 2008:
The IE Domain Registry (IEDR), the not-for-profit organisation that manages Ireland’s top level internet domain, .ie, reports that 2007 was a year of sustained development for this important national resource with continued growth in domains, additional price reductions, further infrastructure investment and a strengthening of the Company’s financial position.

2007 Performance:
2007 was the fifth successive year of profit with a surplus of €523,709 for the twelve month period. Registration income increased by 1.5% despite price reductions of 13% implemented in the year. New registration volume showed strong growth of 41% (net 29%) which offset the impact of the price reduction. The IEDR continues to fulfil its commitment of balancing price reductions with further infrastructure investment and ensuring that the Registry is on a sound financial footing with strong financial reserves.

The strong financial performance of the registry has facilitated additional investment to further enhance the security, stability and resilience of the infrastructure which helps to keep Ireland’s domain holders online. This has been achieved through additional replication of its extensive network of servers around the world and strengthening of business continuity processes, in line with international best practice recommended for ccTLDs. The IEDR remains committed to ongoing investment in this area to protect the .ie namespace in co-operation with its partners.

Administrative expenses increased by 14% partly reflecting a higher spend on technical and infrastructure projects which enabled system improvements for the reseller community to deliver a faster and more cost effective system for this group. Employment costs increased by 6% which is broadly in line with inflation. While net profit after tax fell by 29% compared to 2006, the Company’s liquidity strengthened, with cash and cash equivalents now standing at €3 million, equal to approximately eighteen month’s operating costs. Members’ Funds have also increased, up a third to €2 million at year end placing the Company on a more secure financial footing.

During the year, the IEDR relaxed registration rules to allow individuals to register personal .ie domains and also commenced commercial operations of Ireland’s Electronic Numbering Registry (ENUM). Our Managed Registry has ensured that the quality of the .ie database remains high by international standards and this was reflected in the fact that the .ie domain was named the second safest country code domain namespace in the world in the 2007 McAfee Site Advisor Report.

Current Trading and Outlook:
The Company’s current trading performance and outlook continues to be positive with strong growth forecast in an ever-maturing internet ecosystem. Volume registration growth in early 2008 remains very strong, with record levels of new registrations. In the first half of 2008 registrations grew by 29% compared to the same period last year. In April, the registry passed a major milestone with the registration of the 100,000th .ie. This year, the IEDR was also in a position to introduce a further price reduction of almost 20% for resellers, its fifth successive price reduction, which came into effect on the 1st January 2008. The cumulative effect of these price reductions means that .ie domain prices have reduced by 60% since 2003.

Commenting on the results, Mr. David Curtin, Chief Executive of the IEDR said;
“Results for 2007 show significant progress for the IEDR, in all areas of our business with growth of 41% in new .ie domains, additional price reductions, maintenance of our market leader status for domain names in Ireland and further consolidation of our financial performance. Registrations at year end stood at over 90,000 domains. Our continued strong financial performance facilitated significant price reductions and investments to improve the security, stability and resilience of the national .ie infrastructure. The IEDR continues to fulfil its commitment of balancing price reductions with further infrastructure investment and ensuring that the Registry is on a sound financial footing with robust financial reserves.”

- Ends -

Issued on behalf of the IE Domain Registry by Gibney Communications
Contact: Niall Quinn Tel: 01-6610402/ 086-827 4829

Please find attached the IEDR’s annual report in PDF format.

About the IE Domain Registry:

The IE Domain Registry (IEDR) is a not-for-profit organisation responsible for the management and administration of Ireland’s official internet address .ie, in the interest of the Irish and global Internet communities.    

The IEDR operates the domain name system (DNS) for the .ie namespace, facilitates a dispute resolution service and operates a public ‘Whois’ lookup service for .ie domains.  The DNS is one of the most important systems on the internet as it provides the means to map easy-to-remember internet addresses (www.iedr.ie) to cumbersome IP addresses (217.114.166.217).

The IEDR is a managed registry which means that there are rules and procedures governing the registration of .ie domain names. New applications are reviewed to ensure compliance with the terms and conditions of registration, for example, IEDR will verify an applicant’s company registered number with the CRO, or its patent reference number with international databases. This contrasts with .com or .eu where there is no human review, and the domain applied for will be automatically registered – once the name is available.

Authenticating the claim to the domain name lends confidence to consumers and businesses to carry out transactions online, safe in the knowledge that the online companies are who they say they are. Also with a managed registry there is virtually no instances of cyber squatting, fewer costly intellectually property disputes and reduced instances of spam and identity theft.

Reflecting the nature of Ireland’s managed registry system, in March 2007 the McAfee Site Advisor Report named the .ie country code domain name, as the second safest top-level domain name in the world. A total of 265 top-level domains were ranked in the research. Finland (.fi) was named the safest, followed by Ireland (.ie) in second place and Norway (.no) in third place.

In May 2007, IENUM Limited, a 70% subsidiary of the IE Domain Registry (IEDR), announced the availability of user ENUM (Electronic Numbering) services for telephone number holders in Ireland. ENUM provides an efficient mechanism for VoIP services to locate a person online, even when their online addresses, such as VoIP number or e-mail address, are unknown. It does this based on a lookup of the called party's telephone number, which is still the most widely used form of address world-wide. The IENUM consortium, led by the IEDR won ComReg’s international competition to provide a commercial registry for the supply of ENUM (Electronic Numbering) services in Ireland.

There are currently over 105,000 .ie domains registered with the IEDR.