HEXONET will be attending DOMAINfest next month in Prague, Czech Republic.  Founded and hosted by DomainSponsor, the domain monetization division of Oversee.net, the DOMAINfest conference brings domain industry and Internet professionals together to learn, network, and do business. Before the upcoming DOMAINfest, HEXONET would like to take this perfect opportunity to feature the .CZ ccTLD, the official country-code Top-Level Domain for the Czech Republic.

Overview:

• The .CZ registry is operated by CZ.NIC
• Domain name registrations for .CZ continue their strong grow in 2010, with an average of 10,000 domains being registered each month.
• Total .CZ registered domains now total over 708,844.
• Domain names are evenly distributed between individual holders and corporate holders – 48% individual / 52% organizations
• CZ.NIC is one of the early adopters of DNSSEC. Domains administered by CZ.NIC allow the use of DNSSEC for securing DNS records.
• Outside of the Czech Republic, Germans registrants register more .CZ domains than any other country (Source: http://www.nic.cz/page/752/cz.nic-issues-domain-report/)
• In 2007, CZ.NIC introduced its new in-house created registry system called FRED.
  • The FRED (Free Registry for ENUM and Domains) central registry software is open-source with built in support for smaller registries.
  • Smaller and starting registries can operate their domain in a system designed for the Czech domain, which thanks to its parameters and capacity, is capable of handling much higher volumes of domain names than are currently being processed.
  • In 2009, the FRED system was deployed to operate the Tanzanian national domain (.tz). Following the launch of FRED in Angola in 2008, this system now runs domain administration in two African countries. (source: CZ.NIC)
  • Registrars are very pleased with FRED as it has sped up and simplified the registration process significantly.

Trends & Future Outlook:

• The domainer market in the Czech Republic is very active. In fact, the Czech Association of Domain Owners  (CADD) highly promotes public awareness of .CZ domain names and the buying, selling and use of .CZ domain names in business. CADD also supports and defends the interest of its members in their member’s respective areas of business or professional sector.
• CADD also organizes the annual DomainDay event.   http://www.domainday.cz/
• Leading Czech domainer, Jan Barta, has just been nominated as a potential Domainer of the Year candidate. Jan is a domain heavyweight in the Czech Republic, who has also been a successful serial entrepreneur with companies like Crazy Tomato (mobile content distribution and marketing for corporations like T-Mobile, O2, Red Bull, KFC, Budweiser, and Coca-Cola) and Elephant Orchestra (monetizing direct navigation search traffic).

CZ at a Glance:

• Available Domains: .cz
• Pricing:  View pricing
• Requirements: Company registration number (any country), DOB of administrative contact, and VAT (if applicable).
• Registry: CZ.NIC
• Registration Period: 1-10 yrs
• IDN capable: No