Reunion: Filip Borcov, Site.pro CEO Getting to Know the Hosting and Domain Market in Reunion

Reuniuon, which is officially called the Department of Reunion, is an overseas region of France that is located in the Indian Ocean, between the islands of Madagascar and Mauritius. Compared to other islands in the Indian Ocean, Reunion is relatively small with a population of about 900K. Indeed, not a lot of people heard about the island, and even less were fortunate enough to visit it. Nonetheless, not only did Site.pro team travel to the Reunion Island, but also got some valuable information about the shared hosting market.

Reunion and Local Hosting

One, but Not the Only

Reunion is about being part of something bigger, but still having its own unique. To make it clearer: the official language of the island is French, the same French that is spoken and written in the metropolitan France; the currency currently used in Reunion is euro, just the same as in the mainland France. On the other hand, when speaking about the TLD, Reunion has its own top level domain .re.

Domainity and Shared Hosting Market

Domainity level in Reunion is 3.57%, which means that there are more than 3 domains per 1000 people. Due to the fact that Reunion is a part of France and not an independent island, there are only few tiny local hosting providers here. Telecoms, of course, do provide hosting services, but in reality, those services are provided individually, are of bad quality, and the prices are not shown publicly.

It is not surprising, therefore, that in case people need professional hosting, they tend to buy from foreign providers, such as LWS.fr or OVH. Moreover, the local domain does not enjoy the greatest popularity, and if someone does decide to buy it, he has to lay out quite a sum. Instead, people prefer to use .fr or .com domains.

Support and Customer Service

The working hours in Reunion are from 9:30AM to 7:30PM during warm seasons or from 9:30AM to 6:30PM during winter. Accordingly, there is no support after working hours and during weekends, because that time is considered to be time off. Life shuts down at 8PM and in case customers need support, there is no other choice but to wait for the following day to come (hopefully, that will be a working day).

Conclusion

Unfortunately, the island of Reunion is too small to have big hosting companies, and not so independent to have its own industry. Sadly, or not, but the number of waterfalls in Reunion is higher by 100 than the number of hosting companies. And in general, compared to hosting services, natural environment is something that Reunion can boast about. Its coral reefs, rare birds, amazing plantlife, delicate cloud forests, and the undisputable star of Reunion — Piton de la Fournaise, which is one of the most active volcanoes on the planet and a World Heritage site.