Today at 11:00, EURid – The European Registry of Internet Domain Names - opened its systems to receive applications for .eu domain names from anyone within the EU claiming prior rights to a certain domain name. Since early December it has, in principle, only been possible for trademark holders and public bodies to apply. Some 900 registrars are now sending in the applications they received from numerous candidate domain name holders all across the EU. During the first 15 minutes after 11:00 today EURid received 27 949 applications. After an hour, at 12:00, the number was 71 235. The first three applications sent in today were: webdienst.eu at 11:00:01762 dax.eu at 11:00:01820 videoclips.eu at 11:00:01840 The top 4 most requested domain names during the first hour of Sunrise 2 were: sex.eu with 23 applications schumacher.eu with 15applications realestate.eu with 12 applications business.eu with 12 applications The most applications, during the first hour, were sent by applicants originating from Germany 16 592 The Netherlands 13 418 UK 5 248 France 4 931 Belgium 4 841 Sweden 4 567 At the .eu status page (http://status.eurid.eu) you can follow the development, updated every 15 minutes. From April 7, it will be possible for anyone within the European Union to apply for any available domain name, but during this initial phase, often referred to as the Sunrise period, EURid only allows public bodies and holders of prior rights to apply. See more about .eu’s special Sunrise procedure on our web site (www.eurid.eu). About EURid – The European Registry of Internet Domain Names EURid is a not-for-profit organisation appointed by the European Commission to register and manage .eu domain names. EURid was founded on April 8, 2003, with headquarter in Brussels. Regional offices will be established in Stockholm, Pisa and Prague. The founding members, DNS BE, NIC SE, IIT CNR, operate the country top-level domains for Belgium (.be), Sweden (.se) and Italy. The registries Arnes, for the Slovenian domain (.si) and CZ NIC, for the Czech domain (.cz) are associated members. See more on the web site www.eurid.eu