Successful market entry in Spain for United Internet - over 50,000 customer contracts since August 2007
Montabaur/Madrid, January 24, 2008. With over 50,000 customer contracts and 30,000 registered Internet addresses, the United Internet brand 1&1 has successfully completed its market entry in Spain. In less than half a year 1&1 has thus succeeded in becoming one of Spain's Top 7 providers of webhosting services.
From August 2007 to the end of the year, 1&1's Spanish customers were offered a "Pack Bienvenida" - a webhosting package worth some 200 euros with numerous features and an .es-domain, which users can test for free and without risk over a two-year period. Since its launch, the United Internet subsidiary has overtaken numerous competitors who have long been established on the Spanish market. In December 2007 alone, 1&1 registered every third new .es-domain in Spain. According to figures published yesterday by the Spanish registration authority red.es, 1&1 is already the 7th largest registrar in Spain based on the total number of domains registered during the whole of 2007. Four years ago 1&1 was successful with a similar introductory offer in the USA, where the provider is now among the Top 5.
"Before the launch we analyzed the Spanish market very carefully and decided it was currently the most attractive foreign market for us," says Ralph Dommermuth, CEO of United Internet AG. "Around 95 percent of all companies with more than 10 employees have broadband internet access, for example, but only a fifth of all Spanish companies have their own homepage". United Internet invests some 5 million euros in its market entry on the Iberian peninsular for the establishment of an office in Madrid, a Spanish-language support service and for marketing measures.
Starting in January, Spanish internet users can choose from the full 1&1 webhosting range comprising 16 products, including domain and hosting packages as well as dedicated servers. Further products, such as the software-as-a-service solutions Microsoft Exchange and MailXchange, are to be added in the course of the year.
"After this success, our next target is to break into the Top 3 of Spanish webhosters within the next two years," explains Ralph Dommermuth.