2024 was a year that saw a number of important milestones for DNS Belgium. For a start, we bought our own office building. DNS Belgium first came into being at the University of Leuven and so it has always had close ties with the city. Purchasing our new office building not only confirms this strong connection with Leuven, but it also fits in with a carefully considered financial and strategic decision to strengthen our balance sheet.
Another important milestone was the fifth anniversary of Digital For Youth, the programme that has donated no fewer than 25,000 laptops to charities working to teach digital skills to young people in Belgium since it was founded in mid-2019. And our various awareness campaigns, which emphasise the importance of online safety for both older users and young people, were also successful. Plus we won no fewer than three awards: two BOCA (Best Of Content Awards) and one CMA (Content Marketing Award).
Striving to achieve independence
In 2024, we took the decision to make Belgian entrepreneurs aware of the fact that they should not simply place their digital identity and commercial activities in the hands of foreign tech giants, but should also work on establishing their own place online by having a .be domain name. Once the decision had been taken, we were able to develop a communication strategy that will serve as a springboard for raising more awareness in the coming years, so that Belgian businesses are able to become more independent and stronger in the long term.
With this in mind, we are setting a good example ourselves and examining how we can make our own infrastructure more independent in the future. As a result, we may be looking for a replacement for the infrastructure on which our registration platform is based.
After nine years of not raising our prices and having endured a loss-making year in 2024, we will now be increasing our charges. However, as we had built up good financial reserves over previous years and had kept prices constant, we were able to give back the bulk of these reserves to the various parties we worked with in 2023 and 2024.
HR
As we had done in previous years, we continued to focus on operational excellence and flawless HR administration practices in 2024. DNS Belgium aims to be (and will continue to be) an inspiring, sustainable working environment.
The figures:
As of 31st December 2024, 40 people were employed at DNS Belgium
- 34 were employed full-time
- 6 were employed part-time
Just one employee left DNS Belgium in 2024. And we hired three new people.
Internships
In 2024, we introduced an internship programme designed to attract young professionals. What we do is offer them the opportunity to gain practical experience and develop practical skills that are relevant to their field of study. This programme demonstrates our commitment to the next generation of specialists in our field, while at the same time strengthening our employer brand with young people.
Diversity and inclusion
In 2023, we took the first steps towards diverse and inclusive communication. The next step was to run a workshop on DEI (Diversity, Equality & Inclusion), led by Hamza Ouamari, an external consultant specialising in inclusive communication. This was followed by a number of broader sessions with the DEI working group, as well as with Hamza and his colleague Sana Sellami. This enabled us to formulate practical objectives, such as diverse representation on every level, fair pay and an inclusive corporate culture, while also tackling unconscious bias. These objectives provided the basis for establishing a DEI strategy, with the next step being the development of a DEI charter. This charter was officially presented to all employees in December 2024.
Training and development
DNS Belgium prides itself on focusing on the personal growth of its employees. As a result, the number of training courses made available has been increased significantly. In 2024, for instance, we paid particular attention to providing in-house training courses on connecting communication and S3 methodology. These two training courses are now mandatory for all employees so that we can create a shared basis for communication, decision-making and cooperation.
Team event
In September 2024, we held a strategic team meeting to bring all DNS Belgium employees together and create space for in-depth and meaningful discussions about the future of the organisation. Discussions focused on topics such as our growth strategy, the results of the annual employee survey and the core values of DNS Belgium. The meeting provided an inspiring opportunity to reflect together on where we want to go and how we aim to achieve our goals as a united team.
Annual accounts
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income | ||||
| Income from registration fees | 7,479,881 | 7,545.767 | 7,557,592 | 7,516,341 |
| New names | 832,526 | 879,336 | 940,347 | 1,122,432 |
| Renewals | 6,212,951 | 6,258,580 | 6,219,208 | 5,931,759 |
| Transfers | 294,654 | 276,525 | 272,196 | 335,422 |
| Reactivations | 104,646 | 96,843 | 98,381 | 93,528 |
| Services | 23,971 | 24,743 | 14,840 | 16,223 |
| Transfers from quarantaine | 11,133 | 9,740 | 12,620 | 16,977 |
| Financial income | 197,468 | 67,311 | 3,800 | 1,404 |
| Produced fixed assets | 84,619 | - | - | - |
| Other income | - | - | 430 | - |
| Total income | 7,761,969 | 7,613,078 | 7,561,822 | 7,517,745 |
| Expenditures | ||||
| Personnel costs | 5,457,459 | 5,245,460 | 4,618,010 | 4,162,934 |
| Externe consultancy | 443,421 | 346,435 | 308,649 | 294,241 |
| Costs of technical operations | 1,166,921 | 1,036,132 | 943,939 | 808,063 |
| General overheads | 1,078,524 | 997,998 | 944,482 | 863,426 |
| Depreciation | 151,335 | 226,053 | 226,864 | 551,864 |
| Financial costs | 23,390 | 16,203 | 39,849 | 29,366 |
| Sustainability | 381,353 | 373,400 | 363,299 | 368,209 |
| Total costs | 8,702,403 | 8,241,681 | 7,445,092 | 7,078,103 |
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|
| ||
| RESULT | -940,434 | -628,603 | 116,730 | 439,642 |
Balance
| Assets | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed assets | 2,539,706 | 204,452 | 273,131 | 409,215 |
| Restructuring charges | - | - | - | - |
| Intangible, tangible and financial assets | 2,539,706 | 204,452 | 273,131 | 409,215 |
| Current assets | 5,595,421 | 8,898,780 | 9,280,843 | 9,138,561 |
| Short-term receivables - Trade debtors | 877,406 | 947,424 | 962,669 | 943,663 |
| Short-term receivables - Other | 8,419 | 215,042 | 7,832 | 26,468 |
| Cash and cash equivalents | 4,247,587 | 7,322,885 | 7,965,809 | 7,851,295 |
| Deferred charges and accrued income | 462,009 | 413,429 | 344,533 | 317,135 |
| Total assets | 8,135,127 | 9,103,232 | 9,553,974 | 9,547,776 |
| Liabilities | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
| Capital and reserves | 1,563,579 | 2,504,014 | 3,132,616 | 3,015,886 |
| Surplus carried forward | 2,504,013 | 3,132,616 | 3,015,886 | 2,576,244 |
| Profit (loss) of the year | -940,435 | -628,602 | 116,730 | 439,642 |
| Provisions | 87,143 | 78,035 | - | - |
| Liabilities | 6,484,405 | 6,521,183 | 6,421,358 | 6,531,890 |
| Suppliers | 739,426 | 662,899 | 694,865 | 856,487 |
| Taxes, remuneration and social security costs | 1,221,367 | 1,262,886 | 1,082,893 | 1,030,666 |
| Advances received from registrars | 1,166,438 | 1,193,066 | 1,210,566 | 1,217,566 |
| Accrued charges and deferred income | 3,357,174 | 3.402,332 | 3,433,034 | 3,427,171 |
| Total liabilities | 8,135,127 | 9,103,232 | 9,553,974 | 9,547,776 |