The .eu domain has become one of the most popular in the world only a year after its launch, ranking third most common in the European Union.

About 2.6 million domain names have already been registered, the European Commission reported on Wednesday. One survey indicates that as many as one out of every five Europeans owns a .eu name.

.eu was opened to the public in April of last year following a six-month period where businesses got priority on their copyrighted and trademarked names. The EC claimed that some 700,000 registrations were received in the first four hours alone.

80 percent of those domains purchased are running a website. Only .uk and .de are more popular than .eu, although as preliminary statistics show, those countries also carry the highest .eu registration rates as well.