The Public Interest Registry (PIR), the registry for .org domain names, today announced that 5,000,000 .org domains are now registered worldwide.

The company says that the phenomenal growth experienced by the .org registry in 2006 reflects the continued increase in awareness, value and use of the .org brand, in addition to the success of .org registrars internationally.

In the beginning of July 2005, in an effort to increase Internet use by noncommercial organizations globally and promote the .org domain, PIR offered .org registrars discounts targeting developing regions of the world, including South America, Asia and Africa. The promotions have resulted in a 50 percent increase in .org domain registrations in the targeted regions.

"This is a significant milestone for the .org registry and we are excited that the number of .org registrations worldwide has increased by over 25 percent in less than 1 year," said Edward G. Viltz, President and CEO of PIR. "PIR is especially pleased that the global noncommercial community has an expanding online presence to support their organizational objectives. In addition, commensurate with this growth, the PIR Team is committed to continue expanding our support of the .org community on relevant Internet issues and to ensure community interests are represented within the domain name space."