Industry underwhelmed by dot-eu possibilities

The European Commission is guaranteeing the introduction of dot-eu domain names by the end of the year, but industry watchers are convinced that business and consumers will turn their backs on it.

European ministers yesterday gave their backing to the domain and now await the decision of the European Parliament.

However, Dan Stevenson, an analyst at Jupiter MMXI explained that most companies would rather register their nation's domain as a priority. This shows commitment to the home market and indicates where the company is based.

He said: "I don't think there's going to be much demand for it. For a company that's global, dot-com will be more suitable and UK businesses that aren't globalised will go for dot-co.uk."

Stevenson is also concerned that, on the other end of the wire, online shoppers will be put off by dot-eu, preferring sites that denote their country of origin.

Per Haugaard, a spokesman for European Commissioner for enterprise and information society Erkki Liikanen, defended the introduction of the domain and argued that industry will take a strong interest in the new TLD (top level domain).

He said: "It is pretty likely that it will get through the European Parliament by the end of the year. It is a way to boost ecommerce in Europe by giving more visibility and allowing European companies to market themselves as pan-European."

Dot-eu is expected to be available to buy in early in 2002 and will be managed by an independent registry following a tender later this year.