The surveys were both carried out by domain
registration and hosting company 1&1 Internet, and found that
business sentiment for .eu addresses across Europe was surprisingly
positive.
The .eu domain was launched in December 2005,
by which time most businesses had long-established online presences
at international addresses such as .com or .net, or at country
addresses such as .uk or .de.
The research, though, suggests that the
businesses which have adopted European addresses have found it a
useful experience. It found that 68% of UK businesses which use a
.eu domain thought it was effective, while half of users said that
the domain enhanced their business's image. Around 43% said it
increased accessibility to vital European markets.
French companies were the most enthusiastic
about the addresses, with 88% of them willing to recommend using an
address, 75% believing them to be effective and 72% saying that it
enhanced their image.
Some 2,600 small and medium sized businesses
(SMEs) were surveyed in the UK, France and Germany for the
research.
When the survey quizzed businesses overall,
and not just those with .eu addresses, it found more predictable
results, though. In the UK 51% of SMEs were confused over what .eu
signified, and fewer than half of them could identify it as
signalling that a website was from the European Union, and that
that includes the UK.
"Using a .eu domain name can deliver SMEs
improved accessibility to Europe and enhance their image, yet many
companies remain confused over what .eu represents," says Andreas
Gauger, chief executive of 1&1 Internet. "An astonishing number
do not know that the domain .eu includes British businesses and are
unaware of how much they could gain from flying the European
flag."
The .eu domain has had a hard job building a
significant market because of its late launch and because its area
contains two of the world's biggest country-specific domain names.
Germany's .de has 10 million domains registered within it, while
the UK's .uk has five million addresses.
