Last year saw the registration of 995,000 new .nl domain names. That’s 20 per cent up on 2019, when 827,000 new .nls were created. Thanks to the registration surge, the total number of .nl domain names stood at 6.1 million on 1 January 2021, according to analysis by SIDN, the company behind .nl. Use of internet security standards also rose significantly in 2020.
.nl is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Netherlands.
Reflecting on an extraordinary and dynamic twelve months, SIDN’s CEO Roelof Meijer commented, “It’s an understatement to say that, in many ways, 2020 was unlike any year we’ve known. The lockdowns fuelled above-average growth of the .nl domain, while the hyper-digitisation of society made cybersecurity more vital than ever. Against that landscape, it’s pleasing to see that use of the various internet standards is growing, because broadly speaking that’s good for internet security. Rapid detection of malicious websites has a positive influence on security as well.”
6-millionth .nl domain name registered on June 18
For SIDN, the most significant milestone of 2020 was registration of the six-millionth .nl domain name on June 18. The rush of registrations that took .nl past the six-million mark was driven by the Netherlands’ first lockdown, but the upward line continued when restrictions eased. Although cancellations went up as well, the 5 per cent rise lagged behind the increase in registrations, resulting in net growth of 206,441 over the year. The corresponding figure for 2019 was a net growth of 73,830.
| Year | Net growth |
| 2020 | 206,441 |
| 2019 | 73,830 |
| 2018 | 37,997 |
| 2017 | 109,706 |
| 2016 | 80,529 |
| 2015 | 72,619 |
| 2014 | 142,822 |
| 2013 | 272,712 |
| 2012 | 315,933 |
| 2011 | 607,265 |
| 2010 | 514,230 |
Table 1 – Net growth of the .nl domain since 2010.
