New Delhi: The new web domain .ME registry was officially opened for live, real-time registrations on July 17, 2008. A huge international demand was evidenced by more than 50,000 new domain names being registered in the first two days. The first 'live' name registered was yusu.me.

"While English speaking countries led the way in registration volume, many non-English speaking countries such as Germany, China, and France made a strong showing," said Predrag Lesic, the registry's executive director. "We believe this bodes well for the international success of .ME as the only domain that is all about you! .ME is a domain space that offers personalized names for one's products and services, or his or her personal presence on the web, including email, in a more generic way than any other."

The registry partners include ME-net, GoDaddy.com, a paid hostname provider and Afilias, a registry services provider. Top 10 Countries of .ME registration are the U.S. (50 percent), U.K. (11 percent), Germany (9 percent), Canada (5 percent), China (3 percent), France (3 percent), Netherlands (2 percent), Australia (1.5 percent), Israel (1 percent) and Spain (1 percent).

"The .ME registry performed very well and was able to accommodate the high demand for .ME domain names," said Ram Mohan, Afilias' Chief Technology Officer. "Afilias' registry system performed reliably, recording new create requests in under 21 milliseconds and processing more than 5,000 names in the first minute of open registration. In total, the registry seamlessly accommodated more than 60 registrars vying for .ME names."

The registration process for .ME began in May with the sunrise period for trademark holders. Land Rush for the general public to register names began in June. In total more than 30,000 domains were applied for in Sunrise and Land Rush periods, and more than 50,000 new registrations were added in the initial days of live, real-time registration.