In a recently published study investigating the ranking and the attractiveness of Top Level Domains as assessed by Internet users the ccTLD .de scored excellently and recorded the best TLD result, preceding .com and .co.uk. Sabine Dolderer, CEO of DENIC, the independent provider of the name service for the .de zone, values this as another proof of DENIC's competent performance to the benefit of the Internet community and as an acknowledgement of DENIC’s nearly 23-year old proven and tested business model of self-controlled domain administration.

The study, which was executed by EURid, the operator that administers the TLD .eu, illuminates the interplay between the attractiveness of a leading TLD - as a combined result of brand strength and customer service quality – and the number of end users interested in domains under that TLD. EURid included the generic Top Level Domains (gTLD) .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info and .eu and the European country code Top Level Domains (ccTLD) .be, .cz, .de, .dk, .es, .fr, .it, .pl, .se and .co.uk in its assessment.

The brand strength of TLDs, which was defined as the total of the three key attributes brand "Awareness", "Relevance" and "Preference", was determined within the scope of a comparative brand analysis carried out between December 2009 and January 2010 in 10 countries with 400 participants respectively.

While all ccTLDs included in the study scored 95% aided Awareness in their home countries and thus were nearly level with .com, the results for Relevance differed widely. Except for Sweden (.se) and Germany (.de) the interviewed persons attributed much higher relevance to .com than to the TLD of their own country.

More than three quarters of all the end users who participated in the study preferred .com or their local TLD to any other gTLD. As regards the Preference for .com or the respective ccTLD, the values varied considerably by country: Only the country code TLDs of Germany (.de), Sweden (.se), the Czech Republic (.cz) and Denmark (.dk) outscored .com in this aspect of Preference ranking. The study found that the varying assessments are due to the degree the individual TLD satisfies specific brand characteristics: Users apparently prefer TLDs they feel to meet conservative values such as "convincing", "trustworthy", "stable", "high quality" and "safe" particularly well.

As regards the second pillar of a TLD's attractiveness, customer service, the German ccTLD also achieved very good results in the overall rating. Here, .de scored second among all the investigated ccTLDs, preceded only slightly by .nl.

You will find the complete study “How Top-Level Domain Customer Service and Brand Influence Customer Buying Behaviour” with all the results and analyses on the website of EURid for download at http://www.eurid.eu/files/publ/insights_TLD_branding.pdf.

Background information

About DENIC eG

As the central registry, DENIC administers the now more than 13 million domains under the Top Level Domain .de and thus provides a crucial resource for users of the Internet. It sees its role as that of a competent, impartial provider of services for all domain holders and Internet users. With more than 120 employees, DENIC creates the foundation through its work for German Internet pages and e-mail addresses to be accessible throughout the world. The about 270 members of the Cooperative are IT or telecommunications businesses based in Germany and elsewhere. Working in cooperation with them and other partners, DENIC is committed to guarantee the secure operation of the Internet and its further worldwide development as a not-for-profit organization.

For further information please contact:

Public Relations
Fon: +49 69 27235-274
E-Mail: mailto:presse@denic.de