The Internet Service Centre DOMREG at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) – the registry of .lt top-level domain – informs that the number of domains has reached 198 923 in 2019. Since 2018, the growth of 3.15% is observed. The number of registered .lt domains is expected to reach 200 000 in the near future.
The Head of KTU Internet Service Centre Daiva Tamulionienė claims the increasing number of .lt domains is related to both the active local business and the extensive use of mobile internet. According to the data of the Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania, the number of active SIM cards used for the provision of the internet access services has already exceeded 3 million and is approaching the number of SIM cards used for the provision of the voice services. It shows the substantial growth of the use of the mobile internet, i.e. using phones for web browsing.
“Lithuanians use their mobile phones constantly which prompts businesses to increase their activities online and create more digital content. The activities of the bloggers and influencers must have reached their peak last year. Therefore, the number of websites, blogs and e-shops that need domains keeps increasing.
We are glad that .lt domain remains the most popular in Lithuania: soon there will be 200 000 registered websites, which have .lt ending. On this happy occasion, we have decided to celebrate the growth of the Lithuanian internet by awarding the prize – a tablet – to one lucky holder of .lt domain”, says the Head of KTU Internet Service Centre Tamulionienė.
Even though 57% of .lt domains belong to the companies and other legal entities, the number of internet names registered for personal use remains high. The private persons were the holders of almost 85 thousand .lt domains last year. According to the Head of the Centre, the majority of the private users create .lt domains for their personal websites, blogs and emails. She believes that more and more self-employed individuals are creating their representational websites or e-shops instead of relying solely on social media.
“There is a delightful idea coming from abroad: to create a family’s internet name before the wedding as well as electronic wedding invitations containing a detailed program or even the map of the event’s location. Later, such a website becomes a family chronicle and all the family promotes their name by using the unique email addresses with .lt domain name”, tells Tamulionienė.
Even though nearly 38 thousand new .lt domains were created last year, almost 32 thousand domains were deleted at the will of the domain holders. Most often, the domains are deleted when they are not used anymore or at the end of a specific project or event for which a website was created. Part of the domains is deleted after the termination of activities or bankruptcy of a legal entity.
“If you change a trademark or create a new project, we always recommend keeping the old domain for some time with redirection to the new one. In this case, you will not lose the flow of visitors and will be protected from the fraudsters who can re-create the domain after its deletion and mislead the visitors or even commit crimes while using the domain name.
The people who create new trademarks for a website or e-shop should choose .lt domain because the Lithuanians trust it and automatically type the Lithuanian ending .lt in the browser”, emphasises Tamulionienė. Currently, the procedural services of .lt domain are provided by 66 Lithuanian and 59 foreign registrars.
KTU Internet Service Centre DOMREG is .lt registry; its key tasks are the management of .lt domain infrastructure and insurance of the functioning of the domain name system (DNS) online.
