Jun 15, 2006 : Strato Prepares For .fr Land Rush

📅 June 15, 2006 - German Web hosting provider Strato AG (strato.de 👉 Total Reviews: 15
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Strato CEO Damian Schmidt says the French TLD has been subject to strict controls until now, with companies having to go through a lot of red tape to prove eligibility. This will change starting June 20 and Schmidt anticipates a surge in new registrations, similar to what happened in Spain earlier this year when restrictions were removed from the .es TLD.

Currently, Strato is the second most popular Web hosting company in Europe, behind its fellow German rivals, 1&1 Internet AG. Strato has 1 million customers and 2 million domains registered, compared to 1&1's 3.5 million and 5 million. Of Stratos registered domains, 80 percent are .de, making up for about 16 percent of the total German market of 10 million registered domains.

In April Strato expanded its European reach in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands, driven entirely by the land rush for the new .eu TLD. The company seeks to differentiate its strategy by rejecting the US market, arguing that the expansion would be too costly in terms of the investment required in infrastructure and marketing.