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2020 was a difficult and demanding year for the world, marked by the appearance of the new coronavirus, covid-19. It is in this context of pandemic and uncertainty that we have witnessed the growth of digital and new technologies and continued the work of .PT as the national registry and an active player in the digital transformation and technological development of our country.

Driven by the pandemic, society had to guarantee and affirm its presence in the digital world, reinventing itself and transferring its business to the internet and e-commerce. This evolution is reflected, naturally, in the growth of .pt domains registration, a trend that is expected to continue in 2021.

In 2020, 132 thousand new domains were registered under .pt, of which over 37 thousand were registered under the Empresa na Hora (ENH) initiative. With the establishment of the Company, Branch or Association "on the spot", they will also have "on the spot" their registered domain name and with the offer of the first annuity. But if the numbers show a 22% growth compared to 2019 regarding .pt registrations, within the scope of the Company on the Spot initiative, the trend is reversed, reflecting a 17% decrease in the registration of new domain names compared to the same period last year.

This trend continues in January 2021, in the period that covers the beginning of the new confinement, the registration of domains under the Company on the Spot initiative decreased by 24% compared to the same period in 2020. This evolution is consistent with the information released by the barometer of the statistics firm Informa D&B, which shows a 56% decrease in the creation of companies in Portugal compared to the same period. Although the difference is significant, the same study reveals that it is not so high compared to the first confinement that took place in March last year, with a decrease of 73%, values consistent with the sharp drop in the registration of domains under the Company on the Spot initiative in April 2020 (-61%).

Contrary to the trend of the registrations via Company on the Spot, there is a high number of registrations of new domain names directly in .pt, which in April 2020 were more than 10,000 in comparison with the approximately 6 thousand registrations in April 2019, showing a growth of 64%. 

It is undeniable that the context of the pandemic and the inherent restrictions imposed on normal economic and social activity contribute to the slowdown in the creation of companies in Portugal, however, the less pronounced decrease in the percentage of companies created during the new confinement seems to demonstrate an increasing adaptation of companies to the context, which translates into an increased presence of companies in digital.

In this context that forced companies and institutions to accelerate the adoption of digital technology, it is expected to maintain in 2021 the trend revealed according to indicators of the Economy and Digital Society in Portugal Study, developed by ACEPI in partnership with .PT and IDC, which shows that the percentage of companies with an Internet presence has increased, given that, in the previous study, only 40% of companies registered an online presence, and in 2020 this percentage rose to 60%. This growth is mainly due to the increase in the presence of micro and small companies on the internet, compared to the previous year.

However, despite the improvements shown, there is no doubt that there are still many Portuguese companies without an online presence, without their own domain and website, which puts them at a competitive disadvantage, compared to companies in the same sector with an online presence.

Regardless of the size of your company, strengthen your business, bet on your online presence with the creation of a website under .pt.