The Australian .au domain name has celebrated its 25th birthday with a special event at the King Tutankhamun exhibition in Melbourne.

It has been 25 years since registration of the domain name first took place and its popularity shows no sign of wavering with the current registration figure sitting around the 2.09 million mark.

The event focussed on the theme of ‘the role of technology in the 3000 year-old civilisation’ and celebrated the fact that the.au domain had been a driver in Australia’s digital economy.

Speaking at the event Adrian Kinderis, CEO of AusRegistry said “the .au domain has the highest penetration rate in the world for regulated namespaces with restricted eligibility when you take into account our population.”

He then went on to explain “We have made significant investments in the infrastructure and stability of the .au Registry. This has resulted in a highly stable platform which has strong support from the retail sectors of the industry.”

Speaking about the event and the 25 year milestone, Netregistry CEO Larry Bloch said “It was a little bizarre eating dinner under the gaze of Phar Lap, but all together the evening was very well put together. It was great to catch up with industry figures that have collectively grown this industry from humble beginnings. I particularly enjoyed catching up with the founding CEO of Melbourne IT, Peter Gerrand again. Back in the days of Robert Elz, before auDA and AusRegistry were even conceived of, Melbourne IT and Netregistry were the only players in the Australian com.au domain name game and Peter and I were great rivals as a result.”

The success of the .au domain names can be witnessed by all when looking at statistics relating to the everyday use of the internet in Australia. It is thought that approximately 86% of all .au domain names are registered under .com.au.

Netregistry has provided domain names since 1997 to over 250,000 Australian businesses – offering competitive prices and 24/7 support. Get you .AU domain names today HERE.