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(*couldn't decide if this belongs in stackoverflow or here, but landed here. so if this Q belongs elsewhere I'll remove it)

How do I go about getting a domain like lu.re? I work for a non-profit and I'm thinking of setting up something like an in house shortening domain for publishing longer links in our print materials, and even for sharing stuff on our website (like videos).

I'm not talking about the process of shortening - we got all that covered. What I'm asking about specifically is how to obtain this domain?

I looked into it a little, and some of the drawbacks I found are...

  1. *.re domains are hard to register. Most registrars don't register this ending.
  2. The difficulty of obtaining a two letter domain. It seems that two letter domains are either all taken up, or not being sold, as seems to be the case with *.re domains.

So how would I work around the obstacles and get this thing? I know it is possible - proved by sites like ow.ly (hootsuite's shortening service).

Any tips here?

Just for the record, I checked at http://www.101domain.com/re.htm and when I type lu.re it comes up with .re are not accepting two letter domains. I'm willing to believe that may be a restriction of the registrar, not the *.re extension itself.

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  • 1
    All one and two letter domains have specifically been reserved (though a few were issued before the reservation was official). So if it isn't registered yet, it never will be.
    – Chris S
    Jul 27, 2010 at 20:10

5 Answers 5

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Taken from this Link

Companies and organizations having a head office in the country or having a physical address in the country, mentioned in the public electronic databases of the registrars of the commercial courts or National Intellectual Property Institute, or National Statistical and Economic Studies Institute (INSEE), are entitled to apply for .re domain names. The .re registration is also reserved for the state departments, institutions, local authorities or associated establishments in the Reunion Island and for those residing in the country and owning a trademark registered with the National Intellectual Property Institute.

So, if you aren't located in Reunion Island, it looks like you are out of luck.

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  • Please see my answer elsewhere in this question. As of November 2016, anyone in the world can register a .re domain, but two-character domains must be one letter and one number, or two numbers. NOT two letters. These are the requirements.
    – i336_
    Nov 2, 2016 at 23:41
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Unfortunately, two-character .re domains must be one number and one letter, or two numbers.

Accurate as of November 2016.

As of 6 Dec 2011, .re was opened to registration by anyone in the world, but two-character domains are special.

I recently tried to register a two-character domain name (fi.re :P). AFNIC's website says .re allows two-character domains, but all registrars/domain checkers were erroring out.

So I emailed AFNIC to request clarification, who (promptly!) replied with the following information:

You need to choose a domain name with at least 3 characters.

Only 2 characters domain names in .re, with at least one number are eligible to registration.

Examples :

  • domain names such as "m7.re" or "58.re" (2 characters with at least one number) are eligible to registration

  • domain names such as "7.re", "b.re" (1 character) or "am.re" (2 letters characters) are not eligible

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.re is for the Reunion Island, a French territory. The registry is the AFNIC. It is not an "open for everyone" extension, the registrant does indeed have to be an institution or company located on the island (official contract for registration - in French). Legal proxys are not an option - French law does not AFAIK allow it.

There have been no "domain party" for this extension as it is still regulated by the state.

Additionally, domains in the .fr or .re zones have to be more than 2 letters long. So yeah, you're out of luck.

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You are a little late to that domain party. Short domain names are now considered gold dust.

Those kinds of restriction are based on the fact they want to charge a lot of money.

However in this case the domain has been restricted to people or organisations that are from the Reunion Islands. Probably the route to take would be to setup a company of some sort there (if that is allowed) and register the domain you want.

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  • There are some domain registrars who will handle that for you. They have registered offices in the necessary countries which you can use as proof of residency. My preferred registrar does that for a number of European countries, but not Reunion Islands. If you can find a friendly geek there you can probably launch something making a nice profit. Jul 19, 2010 at 15:11
  • Thanks for the tip. I work for a nonprofit and we're not even looking to profit from this directly - just to use as a convenience for our audience by shortening URLs used in our publications. Jul 19, 2010 at 17:10
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I'm from Reunion Island,

2 letters domain on .re are not allowed by registry, in such case, on availability test you get default "domain taken" message but be certain that there is not 2 letters domain taken/allowed on .re.

maybe you can choice another name like : 1lu.re or 1stlu.re ,.....

regarding local service requirement for .re registration, I see here at the end of post someone I know that offer it in Reunion island : http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/640709-re-for-real-estate-parte-deux.html

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