Annual Report 2019: Building foundations for future growth and expansion of .ie

.IE
by Naomi Temple
16 Jul 2020

We are delighted to publish our Annual Report & Review 2019. Registration revenue increased by 8.7% to €3.61 million in 2019 and new .ie domain registrations of 50,167 were in line with the record-setting year of 2018, when 51,040 new .ie addresses were registered.

We recorded an operating profit in 2019 of €84,796 and unrealised gains on our financial investments of €193,974. Members’ Funds increased by almost 6% during the year. Our overall financial position remained solid in 2019, with a focus on excellence in customer service and technical development for the future security, stability, and resilience of the .ie domain namespace.

Chair of the Board, Ms Louise English, reported that .IE continued to grow in 2019 and develop the .ie domain as the preferred online address for Irish people and businesses. Keeping the .ie namespace safe and secure for our internet users and for Irish business remains a critical priority for the Board.

Our CEO, David Curtin, expressed his gratitude to the retiring Chairman and Company Secretary, Mr Jimmy Joyce for his professionalism, calmness under pressure and unrelenting focus on good corporate governance which has brought the company to its position of financial strength, technical resilience and corporate reputation.

Digital edition

Click on the cover below to read the digital edition of our Annual Report & Review.

.IE Annual Report & Review 2019

Additional highlights

Operational

  • We carried out an extensive due diligence process in 2019, and in April 2020, announced that we would licence a state-of-the-art registry management system for the .ie namespace, which will be delivered by the end of 2020. The new system, in partnership with the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), managers of the .ca namespace, is of industry standard, and will assist our channel registrars in driving their own growth and expansion in the coming years.

Research and market development

  • We published our flagship research, the SME Digital Health Index. The report surveyed 1,000 SMEs and analysed their attitudes to digital, measuring their capabilities against a grading framework.
  • We continued the ‘Digital Town’ initiative in 2019 to celebrate and highlight the knowledge, use and understanding of the internet among citizens, businesses, and communities. Sligo Town was selected as Ireland’s Digital Town of 2019.

Future outlook

  • We remain acutely aware of the innovations in the rapidly changing world of digital communications; in particular, the EU initiatives on the Digital Single Market.
  • We will continue to carefully monitor the health and safety consequences and address the risks to the business arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. The dramatic uptake in the use and application of digital tools during the Covid-19 lockdown in Ireland further motivates us in our mission as a digital advocate for SMEs, citizens, and communities alike.

Comment

Speaking about the Annual Report & Review 2019, our Chief Executive David Curtin, said:

“2019 was a year of building foundations—foundations for expansion and also foundations for the future security, stability, and resilience of the infrastructure that underpins the .ie domain namespace.

“We set the foundations for customising a new, state-of-the-art registry management system for the .ie domain namespace, which will be delivered before the end of 2020. This development will ensure that our technical systems can support the long-term growth of .ie domains and allow our registrars and channel partners to drive their own growth and expansion throughout the coming years.

“In 2019 we also continued to advocate for the digitalisation of SMEs through events and research like the SME Digital Health Index and .ie Digital Town. We believe that there is a need to provide supports and shoulder-to-shoulder assistance to SMEs so that they can leverage the benefits of a strong, modern digital presence using an identifiably Irish .ie web address.

“In the first six months of 2020, we have witnessed the severe human and economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. With business premises closed and people all over the world working from home, the uptake and use of digital tools has accelerated dramatically. 2020 heralds the next wave of digitalisation—the first six months of the year have highlighted the dramatic positive effects that digital tools can have, saving time and money and providing efficient new ways of working, particularly for remote workers.”

Further reading: Visit our Annual Report webpage.

Naomi Temple is our Marketing Specialist working within our corporate communications team.