7 good reasons for choosing a .fr ⁽¹⁾

Thanks to the ease of registration conditions for .fr domain names, AFNIC has automatized its registration procedures. The verifications are made online by AFNIC for most of the registrants. Moreover, there is no need to provide any documents for the verification.

According to a survey carried out by SOFRES for AFNIC in 2002, 72% of Internet users would like to have French companies registered under .fr. This figure underlines the the strong appeal of Internet addresses under .fr and its increasing necessity for an entity wishing to communicate with French Internet users.

If you have a local or a national target audience, you will highlight for your business contacts that you are located in France and thus subject to national laws in the event of any problem. If you have an international target, it may be desirable to consider the positive impact that the fact you you are identified as being "French" could have on your partners. By allowing them to "locate" you, the .fr begins a confidence-building process.

The registrants of a .fr domain name are identified on an official database at the time of registration of their domain name. Making your web site accessible through a .fr domain name is to reinforce the trust of the visitors by showing them that your organization is legally identified in France. Pointers are provided to the public database(s) which were used to identify the registrant, allow any Internet user to know who (or what) is behind a .fr domain name.

It is impossible to have a .fr domain name deactivated or fall back by mistake to the public domain. Every .fr domain name is renewed by default and is only deleted in the case of an explicit request from its registrar.

AFNIC has put in place tools ("ZoneCheck") allowing AFNIC registrars to help it maintain a level of technical management of the .fr zone which makes it the best-managed TLD in the world, with obvious benefits in terms of the reliability and technical performance of your domain names and of the global running of the Internet.

In case of need, AFNIC teams are at the disposal of your registrar to help it resolve potential administrative or technical problems related to your domain name under .fr.