What does NL stand for? 

nl

.nl is the Internet country code top-level domain for the Netherlands. Registrations are processed via a network of participants. It is one of the more popular ccTLDs, ranked 5th in the quarterly VeriSign Domain Name Industry Brief of May 2011 for the first quarter of 2011, after .de, .tk, .uk and .cn. According SIDN's The.nlyst of Q4 2012 it is 9th TLD when including the gTLD's. It was one of the first ccTLD to be registered, when the authority for the .nl domain was handed over to Piet Beertema of the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica in 1986. Since January 31, 1996 .nl domains are registered by the Stichting Internet Domeinregistratie Nederland, based in Arnhem. SIDN operates as a registry, with around 1900 registrars. Most registrars are ISPs, IT service bureaus and media service bureaus, but several large enterprises with many brand names have also become a registrar, or participant as SIDN calls them, which is a quite uncommon phenomenon in the domain name industry. Registrars have to pay SIDN a fee for each domain since April 1, 1996, until then registration was free. SIDN does not deal directly with Registrants. In the early days, most of the registrants were universities and research departments of large companies, such as Philips Research.

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