.au domain names pass the 3 million mark

Australia’s internet community reached a major milestone on Friday, with the registration of the 3 millionth .au domain name.

Announcing the milestone, AusRegistry revealed that the achievement places Australia in the top 10 of all countries by domain name volume.

AusRegistry CEO Adrian Kinderis said the technology underpinning .au has helped ensure it is one of the most trusted locations on the global internet.

“The significant investment we have made in the infrastructure and stability of the .au registry has produced a robust and secure platform that is recognised for its best-of-breed architecture. This is one of the reasons .au has achieved 100% uptime throughout our tenure,” he said.

The registrar noted that there has been significant growth in .au registrations over the past 13 years. Usage of the domain is also accelerating, with the internet registrar fielding 41.2 billion DNS queries for .au domain names in June alone.

The .au domain is administered by auDA, a non-profit vested with responsibility for operating the domain under an industry self-regulatory model. Some 86% of all .au domain names are registered under .com.au, and nearly 40% of all .au domain names have been registered for between two and six years.

NSW accounts for the largest number of .au domain registrations (1 million), followed by Victoria (800,000) and Queensland (600,000).

Commenting on the milestone, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull noted that the internet has supercharged every aspect of human development.

“The internet is the most transformative infrastructure ever built by mankind,” he said. “Australia, once remote, is one of the greatest beneficiaries of the internet’s annihilation of geography.”

Image courtesy AusRegistry