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2022 review: continued growth for the .fr TLD

Home > Observatory and resources > News > 2022 review: continued growth for the .fr TLD
03/30/2023

Afnic publishes its review of the .fr TLD in 2022. Following two exceptional years, the domain continued to gain market share with a high level of new registrations.

Key Figures:

  • 753,412 new .fr domain names were created in 2022.
  • The market share of .fr continued on its upward trend reaching 39.4% in France. .fr remains the preferred TLD among French Internet users.
  • .fr growth remains above that of the French market and European countries.

Growth driven by a high level of new registrations

753,412 new .fr domain names were created in 2022, up 9% on 2019, the base year. This continued high level of create operations notably confirms that the digital transformation of VSEs/SMEs is continuing and has reached a new milestone, given that the creation of new .fr domain names fluctuated between 600,000 and 700,000 per year up until the health crisis, which led many small businesses to obtain their own website and domain name in a hurry.

The .fr TLD also reached the symbolic threshold of 4 million domain names in December 2022, while annual growth in stock stood at 2.9% over the year. Although this performance indicates a slowdown compared with 2021 (+5.9% growth in stock), it remains above the growth of the French market (+1.3%) and the +2% growth of the European ccTLD (Internet domains corresponding to country codes) market.

Change in annual growth rate .fr 2013-2022

Adopted by VSEs/SMEs, .fr continues to gain market share in France

The .fr TLD continues to gain market share over .com in France. In 2022, the gain in market share was 0.6% over .com which lost 0.5%.

 

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

Total

.FR 0,8 0,5 0,3 0,8 0,6 + 3,0
.COM 1,2 0,6 – 0,6 0,6 – 0,5 + 1,3
Other Legacy TLDs
– 0,9 -0,8 – 0,3 – 0,3 – 0,3 – 2,6
Other ccTLDs – 0,3 – 0,2 – 0,4 – 0,2 – 0,1 – 1,2
nTLDs – 0,9 – 0,1 1,0 – 0,9 0,3 – 0,6

 

Committed to the digital transformation of VSEs/SMEs through the Réussir-en.fr (Succeed with .fr) programme, .fr supports 20,000 small businesses every year with the development of a controlled and independent Internet presence. Most VSEs/SMEs (source: Réussir avec le web survey 2022) opt for a .fr, a low-cost TLD that represents trust and proximity.

cover .fr study 2022

Download the 2022 review of the .fr TLD (1 Mo)

About Afnic

Afnic is the acronym for Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération, the French Network Information Centre. The registry has been appointed by the French government to manage domain names under the .fr Top Level Domain. Afnic also manages the .re (Reunion Island), .pm (Saint-Pierre and Miquelon), .tf (French Southern and Antarctic Territories), .wf (Wallis and Futuna) and .yt (Mayotte) French Overseas TLDs.

In addition to managing French TLDs, Afnic’s role is part of a wider public interest mission, which is to contribute on a daily basis, thanks to the efforts of its teams and its members, to a secure and stable internet, open to innovation and in which the French internet community plays a leading role. As part of that mission, Afnic, a non-profit organization, has committed to devoting 11% of its Revenues from managing .fr Top Level Domain to actions of general interest, in particular by transferring €1.3 million each year to the Afnic Foundation for Digital Solidarity.
Afnic is also the back-end registry for the companies as well as local and regional authorities that have chosen to have their own TLD, such as .paris, .bzh, .alsace, .corsica, .mma, .ovh, .leclerc and .sncf.

Established in 1997 and based in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Afnic currently has nearly 90 employees.