The French Association managing over twenty Top-Level Internet domains takes a look back at 2022, a year marked by durability and innovations.
The words of Afnic Chair Godefroy Beauvallet perfectly encapsulate the past 12 months:
“Afnic is innovating and transforming with the aim of consolidating and ensuring the viability of what it has best to offer - the fulfilment of its association-based mission: ‘building a secure and stable Internet open to innovation’.”
2022 saw the signing of a new Agreement between the French State and Afnic as registry operator for .fr domain names. This new agreement allows Afnic to continue to contribute its expertise and values of open innovation, in all things regarding the DNS and its application, to building an essential Internet infrastructure.
As part of an approach based on continuous security improvement, we migrated all of our registration and management services for the .fr and French overseas TLDs (.re, .pm, .tf, .wf, .yt) to a new back-end system designed in house over several years.
The number of .fr domain names exceeded 4 million at the end of the year, a milestone for the .fr TLD which consolidated its leading market position in 2022.
In addition to developing the .fr domain, security and innovation to bolster confidence in digital technology, combined with training and support for VSEs/SMEs in their digital transformation, as well as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the solidarity actions led by our Foundation are all central to our new commitments. At the same time, we are ensuring the lasting nature of our actions in favour of the general interest by allocating 11% of annual revenues from the .fr domain to these causes from now on.
Yet another symbol of transformation, we have followed through on our determination to develop our registry policies through dialogue and in synergy with the Internet ecosystem and governing bodies, in the form of a public consultation and by forging new partnerships.
To find out more:
About Afnic
Afnic is the acronym for Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération, the French Network Information Centre. The registry has been appointed by the French government to manage domain names under the .fr Top Level Domain. Afnic also manages the .re (Reunion Island), .pm (Saint-Pierre and Miquelon), .tf (French Southern and Antarctic Territories), .wf (Wallis and Futuna) and .yt (Mayotte) French Overseas TLDs.
In addition to managing French TLDs, Afnic’s role is part of a wider public interest mission, which is to contribute on a daily basis, thanks to the efforts of its teams and its members, to a secure and stable internet, open to innovation and in which the French internet community plays a leading role. As part of that mission, Afnic, a non-profit organization, has committed to devoting 11% of its Revenues from managing .fr Top Level Domain to actions of general interest, in particular by transferring €1.3 million each year to the Afnic Foundation for Digital Solidarity.
Afnic is also the back-end registry for the companies as well as local and regional authorities that have chosen to have their own TLD, such as .paris, .bzh, .alsace, .corsica, .mma, .ovh, .leclerc and .sncf.
Established in 1997 and based in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Afnic currently has nearly 90 employees.
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