More than 1.3 million .EU domain extensions have already been registered according to Eurid. Most of them, about 700,000 are registered on the first day when any European citizen was allowed to apply.

The German consumers were leading the race for new names in their first registration day.

The .EU "land rush" period began on 7 April and followed a 4 month "sunrise" period that was open only to holders of trademarks. Many European businesses has already gained control over domains relevant to their brands.

About 300 000 .EU domains were registered during the "sunrise", but this number was outrun within the first four "land rush" hours. At this time were registered 702 684 domains. The first five applications filled in on the start of the open .EU registration period were

dekoration.eu, buchung.eu, tankstellen.eu, exhibitionist.eu, eurorechner.eu

Registration peak reached 76 domain applications processed every second.

.EU to Boost the European Online Market

BBC reported that Eurid managing director Marc Van Wesemael issued a statement that said the agency was satisfied to see a significant interest from website owners.

"We are satisfied to see that the interest in .eu has been so large and that many already regard .eu as a useful complement to internet's national top level domain names," said Van Wesemael.

But is ".EU opening" becoming a landmark between the era of national online market and the new global european economy. At this time the domain, hosting and all other markets in Europe are virtual only. Consumers were keen to purchase services and products mainly on their domestic websites. Only a small percentage of european now shopping with companies and .com stores located outside their own country. Different languages in EU, 25 official and many local dialect put obstacle in process of globalizing the EU's online market. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) for example approved the .cat domain las year to pave way of people who want to host and publish websites in catalan language. Even Catalunya is part of Spain, Catalan people claim they have their own ethnic and "national" identity.

Using the .EU is a chance Europe to build its own online market that includes all member states. With 456 million population Europe is the worlds biggest and riches market. At the same time European Union is far behind US when it comes to .com economy.

But now with Germans leading the race by owning 419,866 of the 1,318,171 active .eu domains and UK users getting 270 292 of new european names, the process of globalizing the european web could only the first step of uniting the divided European online market.