UK domain registry breaks 9 million

Flab-fighting site is nona-millionth active domain

The .uk has just broken nine million active domain names, Nominet announced today.

The nine millionth address, Active2011.co.uk, was registered by Nirvana Spa, which fortunately for Nominet is not the Tibetan-themed massage parlour its name might suggest, but a posh health spa in Berkshire.

It registered the domain name with a related business, Pulse 8 Health and Fitness Club, to promote their special offers for new year flab-fighters.

It's a little over a year since the eight millionth .uk address was registered. On a net basis the registry has been growing at about the same rate for several years.

Nominet CEO Leslie Cowley said it has been a good year for the domain industry given the economic climate. "March 2010 saw us hit 200,000 new registrations for the first time in 10 years," she said.

"We were pleased to see .uk regain our position as the world's second largest country code Top Level Domain registry after .de. and closer to home, our research revealed that 80 per cent of consumers in the UK prefer to use a .uk website over a .com website, an increase of 3 per cent on last year." ®