Afnic, the .FR Top Level Domain registry, published its annual report that details the activity of .FR over the past year. Analyses of the specificities of the French Internet domain and domain market trends in France in 2024:

2024 key figures

• 4,216,786 domain names registered at 31 December 2024: the .FR TLD has continued to assert itself as a mainstay of the digital sector in France.
• 802,202 new create operations. Having exceeded the 800,000 threshold in 2023 (801,427), the number of create operations further improved on the previous year’s record, reaching 802,202 new .FR names registered. These performances correspond to the perpetuation of VSEs/SMEs’ digital transformation, but they may also be down to the marketing and commercial actions of registrars, which have energized the market.
• +2.0% growth. Although lower than the previous year (+3.4%), growth in the number of .FR domain names in 2024 remains above that of the French market for all TLDs taken together (+1.6%). The dynamics of the .FR TLD contrasts with the negative performance of .COM, whose stock fell between an estimated -1.5% and -2.0%, and that of most of the major European TLDs, which also lost stock (-0.5%) in the last quarter. Given that the domain name market is often aligned with the economy in general, the outlook remains gloomy.

  

• 40.4% market share in France. The slight increase in 2023 (40.3%) marks a new all-time high for the .FR TLD, and while remaining modest, confirms the trend seen over recent years: users increasingly favour the national TLD when it comes to their online presence.

• A retention rate of 82.6%. The retention rate for .FR (i.e. the proportion of domain names renewed from one year to the next) remains high, yet down slightly on 2023 (83.4%).

  The age structure of .FR names have a direct effect on the TLD’s retention rate since this rate varies with the age of the domain names. The weight of ‘old’ names thus increased slightly, which had a stabilizing effect on the renewal rate. This impact was not sufficient, however, in 2024 to offset the surge in the volatility of the most recently registered names.

• Deconcentration of the .FR domain market. The weight of the three leading .FR registrars—which together account for 60% of the .FR domain—in .FR activity remains considerable in view of the number of registrars active in this TLD. But their share of creations, currently below 50%, is a strong signal announcing a profound change in the key success factors of the .FR domain names market in France.

  Furthermore, since 2022, the three leaders (as a whole) have been losing clients to the other registrars (deterrent effect) while the other registrars’ clients are turning less often to the leaders when they change registrar (repellent effect). Although the volumes involved remain modest, this phenomenon is eroding the market share of the three leaders and contributing to the deconcentration of the .FR domain.

Outlook for 2025: how will the .FR TLD evolve?

In 2025, the market for .FR should remain characterised by a high level of delete operations and high volatility. However, the vitality observed in create operations in 2024 is also set to continue, notably driven by the digital transformation of VSEs/SMEs. The steady volume of create operations should more than offset deletions, thus boosting growth of the .FR domain, which is expected to be between +1% and +2% in 2025.

The success of the .FR TLD in the years to come will depend on the support provided to businesses and project leaders for their digital transition and online presence, which is why Afnic is actively pursuing its efforts to firmly root our national TLD in uses through programmes to raise awareness and train users in all things digital, such as Réussir avec le web [Succeed with the Web] and Je passe au numérique [I’m going digital]. The quality of the relationship between Afnic and its registrars is vital to the success of the .FR TLD, and the commercial operations targeting long-term uses of domain names, jointly developed with the latter, are key to achieving this.

Download the 2024 .FR study:
The FR in 024.pdf (2,12 MB)
The .fr Observatory