It was revealed by SIDN - the official domain administration of Netherlands that the Dutch domain name registrations have reached the 3 million name threshold. This is a truly remarkable year in domain name industry. Let’s discuss the place and value of the NL tld and look at the best selling Dutch names.



The surge in number of domain registrations started after 2006 when the registration rules were reviewed making it easier for private persons to register a name. Initially, only companies were allowed to register straight into the 2nd level domain. Persons had to register their names within 3rd level, for example jakobvenders.123.nl - now these 3rd level domain names are officially discontinued by SIDN and they even offer the owners a modest fee to get the job done and get rid of all these 3rd level domains.

Let’s look into some interesting facts:

  • The 3-millionth domain name of Netherlands is vivianlam.nl which makes a name and a surname of a Dutch woman - Vivian Lam.
  • Although the first domain name in Netherlands was registered in 1986, it was only in 1996 when Dutch domaining started to slowly take off.
  • At the moment around 67% of Dutch domain names NL are owned by companies.
  • 62% of Netherlands domains have active websites - a brilliant figure. Hats off!
  • 66% of publicly owned domain names are used to host personalized e-mail services.
  • There are 16 million Dutch people and 3 million domain names making it one domain per each 5,33 Dutch. Don’t ask me what is 0,33 Dutch - it is only statistics.
  • To register a NL domain name you DON’T necessarily have to be connected or operation in Netherlands. However, you HAVE to have a postal address in Netherlands (P.O. box won’t do, sorry!). So, if you have a good pal in Netherlands, you can own a .NL domain name without restrictions.
  • There are about 250 country-code top-level names. Of these 250 only three are bigger than .NL - I mean .DE (12 million), .CN (almost 12 million) and .CO.UK (almost 7 million).
  • The average price of NL Dutch domain names in the aftermarket have risen from EUR 1,000 (2007) to EUR 1,500 this year.
  • Allegedly, around 90% of all domain name aftermarket sales are carried through by SEDO domain marketplace. By the way, you can check what Dutch domain names are for sale at the moment by searching SEDO listings.

Please look at the most expensive NL domain names:

Voetbal.nl $720,000
Relatiegeschenk.nl $111,000
Veiling.nl $66,212
Gezondheidszorg.nl $24,258
WebMaster.nl $16,235
Voeding.nl $15,909
Planten.nl $10,070

The latest NL domain name sold, relatiegeschenk.nl was a real surprise. The starting bid at SEDO was only 1,500 EUR and in just a week it jumped to 72,000 EUR (111,000 USD) . In translation from dutch it means “relationship gift”. Can you imagine relationshipgift.com going for over 100K? No way! This just proves that when it comes to domain names, you can sell almost anything - also names that doesn’t make any sense at all!

Also voetbal.nl (football) that was sold back in year of 2000 for $720,000. Isn’t it surprising? For example voetbal.net was sold for $3,500 last year - just about the value it should be.

Anyhow, it is great to see domaining in Netherlands booming!

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