(BRUSSELS) - The European .eu web domain has picked up 2.8 million customers in its first two years of existence and ranks in the global cyber top ten, the EU commission said Saturday.

On the web domain's second birthday the EU's executive arm proudly listed leading brands such as Bridgestone, Mika and Versace among the companies, groups and individuals who have chosen an .eu Internet address.

However 2007's .eu growth of some 300,000 registrations was far lower than the big-bang opening in April 2006 when over 2.5 million users were registered in the first year.

It now ranks fourth among European Internet addresses and ninth worldwide, with plenty of ground to make up on .com which had 71.7 million registrations by the end of last year.

"Early adopters of .eu understood its value, and have grasped the opportunity to promote their own pan-European outlook," said EU Media Commissioner Viviane Reding in a statement.

"The stronger Europe's single market for telecommunications grows, the more we ought to ensure that .eu becomes more visible, secure and affordable," she added.

In Europe the .eu tag still lags behind Germany's .de and Britain's .uk and is battling with the Netherlands' .nl for third place.

In terms of total number of .eu registrations per country of origin, Germany continues to lead with 31.4 percent followed by the Netherlands (13.4 percent), Britain (13.3 percent) and France (7.3 percent).

In terms of growth, however, there is a different picture. With overall growth at 11 percent in 2007, the number of registrations for .eu from Poland increased by 48.6 percent, followed by Lithuania (48.4 percent) and Finland (39.9 percent).

While Germany currently enjoys the most popular nation web domain, .de could soon be dethroned by China's cyber army, as .cn already has 8.5 million registered users.

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