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Australia's Internet community celebrated a significant milestone last night with the registration of the two millionth .au domain name.

.au Domain Administration (auDA), the non-profit manager of the .au space, and AusRegistry, the registry operator for designated second level domains, congratulate all .au domain name registrants for contributing to this special achievement.

The milestone follows strong growth in registrations over the past 10 years and places .au in the top 10 largest country codes in the world. This is a testament to the strength and stability of the namespace and its value to the Australian community. Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Senator Stephen Conroy said today's milestone was further evidence of Australia's growing digital economy.

"The digital economy is the future and I'm pleased to see more Australians getting an online presence," said Senator Conroy. "The Internet offers incredible opportunities to businesses, organisations and individuals and the continued growth of the .au domain shows how much Australians are embracing the online world in almost all aspects of their lives.

"I congratulate the team at auDA and AusRegistry and look forward to this successful domain expanding further."

The Hon Tony Staley, auDA Board Chair, recognised the milestone as an opportunity to promote the .au namespace as a vital national resource.

".au is Australia's home on the Internet. It's a trusted, well-recognised space for all Australian businesses, organisations and individuals. .au's consistent growth, meaningful stakeholder engagement and sound policy framework are a ringing endorsement of the industry self-regulatory model under which we operate," Mr Staley said.

Chris Disspain, CEO of auDA, said all Australians should be proud of the strong online community we have created through .au.

"There were only about 275,000 .au domains registered when auDA introduced a new competition model in 2002. Now we are celebrating two million registrations and this wouldn't have been possible without the policy reforms and marketing activities auDA have implemented, or without the technical and operational expertise AusRegistry has brought to the industry," Mr Disspain said.

AusRegistry's CEO Adrian Kinderis said .au is one of the most widely used country code domains in the world.

"The .au domain has the highest penetration rate in the world for regulated namespaces with restricted eligibility when you take into account our population. The .au domain has become part of the fabric of doing business in Australia. We have seen continual strong growth in the namespace despite the global financial crisis and other market factors. .au is Australia's domain namespace of choice and the only place to show that you are a trusted Australian," Mr Kinderis said.

About auDA
.au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA) is an Australian non-profit company vested with the responsibility of operating the .au domain under an industry self-regulatory model, for the benefit of all stakeholders.

In its role as manager of the .au domain, auDA carries out the following functions:

• develop and implement domain name policy
• license 2LD registry operators
• accredit and license registrars
• implement consumer safeguards
• facilitate .au Dispute Resolution Policy
• represent .au at ICANN and other international fora.

About AusRegistry
AusRegistry is located in Melbourne, Australia. It is the current Registry Operator and wholesale provider for all commercial domain names including .com.au and .net.au and non-commercial domain names, .gov.au and .edu.au. AusRegistry was first awarded the tender in 2002 and holds a Registry Licence Agreement with the .au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA).

About ARI Registry Services

ARI Registry Services (formerly AusRegistry International) is one of the top companies globally with the technology and expertise to activate, implement and manage new Top-Level Domains. Leveraging ten years of experience as a TLD registry operator, ARI Registry Services will provide new Top-Level Domain applicants with the same software and consulting services that currently drive the .au (Australia), the .ae (United Arab Emirates), the .qa (Qatar) and .om (Oman) country codes. (Learn More)

Related topics: DNS, Domain Names, Registry Services, Top-Level Domains