July 21, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Domain registrar and web hosting provider Go Daddy (godaddy.com), which also happens to be one of three companies behind doMEn (domain.me), the operational body responsible for the .me top-level domain, announced on Monday it has seen a 'Super Bowl-like' spike in traffic and domain registrations since .me became available to the general public on July 17.
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Go Daddy says within the first 24 hours of registration, it signed up more than 20,000 .me domain names, making it the most successful new domain launch in the company's history.
Requests for .me registrations were so high, apparently, that at one point it began delaying Go Daddy's website. But the company says it immediately began deploying more servers to withstand the spike in traffic and within a couple of hours, the website resumed normal operations.
Nevertheless, because of the delay, some customers ended up registering domain names that were already taken or reserved by the .me registry before the launch, says the company. However, once the site stabilized, Go Daddy began notifying customers of the invalid registrations and started processing refunds.
"In spite of a few early difficulties GoDaddy.com successfully processed a huge, record-setting level of registrations," says Bob Parsons, founder and CEO of Go Daddy. "To the best of our knowledge, there have never been more registrations handled in one day during the ordinary course of businesses by any registrar in history. It's important to note, that in addition to the .me onslaught we also successfully processed our normal business which averages one registration every second."
The .me extension was assigned to Montenegro as a county code after it became an independent nation in June 2006. However, the Montenegro government decided .me would be operated as a generic name after considering the potential worldwide wide appeal for the extension. Go Daddy says .me is suited to "individuals or businesses looking to uniquely express themselves online with a podcast, blog, online photo album or website dedicated to their interests."
In light of the popularity the ccTLD has garnered thus far, web hosting provider Easyspace (easyspace.com) also announced on Monday it has begun offering .me domain registrations through its website. Easyspace says it is one of only a handful of UK-based registrars selling .me domain names.
Other companies that have recently opened registration for the .me domain extension include domain registrar LCN and web hosting provider Netfirms.
