Afnic Awarded Contract To Run .FR For 5 More Years

Afnic has been awarded the right to operate the .fr ccTLD for another 5 years, the registry announced.

In December 2016 .fr passed the 3 million domain name registrations mark, just days after the Italian country code top level domain, .it, passed the same mark.

In a decree dated 5 April 2017 published in the Official Journal of the French Republic, Mr. Christophe Sirugue, French Minister of State for Industry, the Digital Sector and Innovation, has appointed Afnic as the Registry for the .fr TLD for a term of 5 years from 25 June 2017.

“We are delighted by this decision which rewards the commitment and work of the teams and members of Afnic, who have allowed us to meet our commitments to make .fr a secure, simple and competitive namespace. With growth close to 30% since 2012, the .fr is one of the 4 most dynamic TLD suffixes in Europe and ranks as one of the top 10 in top-level domains worldwide. The .fr now represents a community of more than 3 million online successes,” said Mathieu Weill, Afnic CEO.

Afnic will continue to promote the .fr as a key partner in ensuring the online presence of SOHOs / SMEs, supporting digital solidarity and making the voice of France heard at the international level.

For the next 5 years, Afnic has set itself the goal of helping the one million French SOHOs / SMEs still absent from the Internet get on-line. Since 2012, the Réussir-en.fr program has been helping them begin their digital transformation and develop their online presence with business diagnostics, tools and practical advice.

A non-profit association committed to combat digital exclusion, Afnic donates most of the profits from .fr to the Afnic Foundation for Digital Solidarity, created in 2015, which financed 35 projects throughout France as of its first operating year in 2016.