The Dutch ccTLD, .nl, has overtaken the Chinese ccTLD, .cn. On 31st of January 2011, the .nl had 4,257,410 domains registered according to the .nl registry website www.sidn.nl. The .cn registry figures for January 2011 show that it has 3,494,227 domains registered. This is a massive change for the .cn ccTLD but it is largely due to the Chinese government imposing stricter rules on the registration of .cn domain names and its cleaning up of the ccTLD. The .cn ccTLD peaked at 14,082,553 registered domains in February 2009 when it overtook the German .de ccTLD as the largest ccTLD. Due to the managed registry approach adopted by the .cn registry, the .cn domain count is close to its April 2007 count. The Dutch .nl ccTLD is along with Germany’s .de and the United Kingdom’s .uk ccTLD one of the powerhouse ccTLDs of the European domain market.
HosterStats 2011 Domain Name Counts: gTLD and ccTLD Statistics
