Domain Name Growth Slows, But 184 Million Domain Names Registered: VeriSign

While total domain name registrations have continued to grow to a new record total of 184 million, the growth has slowed reports the latest VeriSign Domain Name Industry Brief. Undoubtedly the slow in growth is a result of the global financial crisis. However country code (ccTLD) registrations have continued to grow faster than those for generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs).

While total domain name registrations have continued to grow to a new record total of 184 million, the growth has slowed reports the latest VeriSign Domain Name Industry Brief. Undoubtedly the slow in growth is a result of the global financial crisis. However country code (ccTLD) registrations have continued to grow faster than those for generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs).In the second quarter of 2009 there was a one percent increase over the first quarter of 2009 and growth of nine percent over the same quarter of last year.During the second quarter, ccTLD registrations rose by 14 percent year over year to 74.4 million domain names – a total that represents a one percent rise from the first quarter of 2009. The base of ccTLDs domain name registrations was impacted by a loss in base for .CN and .EU. In terms of total registrations, .COM remains the most popular TLD category.However the report notes .CN (China) is the second highest in total registrations but recently .DE (Germany) has reclaimed the second position in total registrations mainly due to a dramatic drop in .CN registrations but also due to the continuing growth in .DE registrations. Fourth is .NET.Among the top 25 largest ccTLDs, there was notable growth quarter over quarter among several ccTLDs. Registrations for .AR (Argentina) domain names grew the fastest with an eight percent growth quarter over quarter, which may be related to the opening of IDN registrations at the end of March. Russian Federation (.RU) domain name registrations grew by seven percent, a slightly slower trend than previous quarters but still the second fastest growing among the largest ccTLDs. The Brazilian ccTLD, .BR, also saw domain name registrations grow by seven percent over the quarter which was likely due to liberalisation of registration requirements for .NET.BR in April 2009 and .COM.BR in May 2008. The Chinese ccTLD, .CN, which had been experiencing notable growth, saw the overall base of registrations decline eight percent quarter over quarter.Only four, .AR, .AU (Australia), .BR (Brazil), .PL (Poland) of the top 25 largest ccTLDs experienced quarterly growth rates in the second quarter of 2009 that were higher than the growth rates in the first quarter of 2009. Four of the top 25 largest ccTLDs, .RU, .PL, .BR, and .FR (France), experienced growth rates year over year in excess of 25 percent.However for the main gTLDs, .COM and .NET, growth was much less impressive with registrations growing to 93.5 million during the second quarter of 2009. This represents a one percent increase over the first quarter of 2009, a seven percent increase over the same quarter of the previous year, and a 28 percent increase over the second quarter of 2007.VeriSign’s average daily Domain Name System (DNS) query load during the second quarter increased from 38 billion to 49 billion per day, resulting in hundreds of millions of Internet users accessing Web sites or sending email. This is a 29 percent increase from the 38 billion daily queries average in first quarter 2009. Managing the increasing traffic on the Internet reflects VeriSign’s continued investments in its DNS infrastructure, which have enabled the company to maintain a record 100 percent uptime of its network over the past 11 years. That track record has earned VeriSign the reputation of being one of the most reliable and trusted networks in the world.To read the September 2009 VeriSign Domain Report in full, see www.verisign.com/domainbrief.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.