Frankfurt, 30 June 2026
The German country code .de continues to strengthen its leading global position. By surpassing the 18-million mark for registered domains, DENIC eG has confirmed the enduring confidence in the digital home of the German Internet.
A strong signal for Germany as a digital hub: in June this year, the 18-millionth .de domain was registered. Whether international corporations, German SMEs, innovative start-ups or private individuals – the .de extension remains the undisputed number one for digital identity, proximity and trust in the German market.
From a pioneering digital project to the backbone of the infrastructure
The success story of .de reflects the rapid pace of digitalisation:
- 1986: The beginning: .de is entered into the global IANA database and initially administered from the USA.
- 1988: Management is transferred to the University of Dortmund – with a manually maintained list of just six domains.
- 1996: To keep pace with the rapid growth, 37 internet service providers founded the Cooperative DENIC eG. The portfolio at that time: around 50,000 addresses.
- 1999: Just three years later, the one-million mark was surpassed.
- 2006: The magic milestone of 10 million registered .de domains was exceeded.
- 2026: The total number grows to 18 million addresses.
In peak years, the total grew by up to one million domains per year. Today, with 18 million domains, statistically speaking, almost one in six people in Germany is a holder of a .de domain.
Trust and identity: the foundation of success
“18 million .de domains are not a given, but the result of a strong ecosystem of cooperative members and partners,” explains Tom Keller, member of the DENIC eG Executive Board. “At a time when digital identity is more important than ever, .de stands for reliability and a sense of belonging. Anyone who wants to be visible in Germany chooses .de.”
This unique position is impressively underpinned by a representative study conducted by Ipsos GmbH Hamburg (December 2025) among more than 1,000 respondents:
- Genuine awareness: The unaided awareness of .de stands at 79 per cent across the overall market, placing it well ahead of the extensions .com (67%) and .net (17%). Aided awareness, at 97 per cent, is almost at the maximum level.
- High familiarity in a direct comparison: 78 per cent of respondents across the market are extremely or very familiar with .de. By comparison, the .com domain achieves a noticeably lower figure of 64 per cent here. .de scores particularly highly in the areas of data protection, German-language content and national relevance.
- First choice when given a free choice: If respondents were free to choose a domain extension, 72 per cent of the overall market would choose the .de extension. Here too, .com lags significantly behind at 29 per cent.
Thanks to its support for umlauts and special characters (such as ä, ö, ü and the Eszett ß), the domain extension is also deeply rooted in German linguistic culture and enables both businesses and private individuals to establish a thoroughly authentic digital presence.
