Nominet have published an analysis of the world’s ccTLDs in 2018 which has found Kuwait’s ccTLD was the fastest growing, 8 African ccTLDs saw growth of over 100% and their own .uk showing the second fastest growth of the top 10 ccTLDs.
The analysis also includes the map below, and click for a larger version. The map shows countries, and territories with their own ccTLD, in proportion to their size by domains under management. So Tokelau (.tk) is the largest country in the world due to having more than 21 million DUM, China (.cn) the second largest with almost 21 million and Germany (.de) the third largest with 16.2 million DUM. The United States, due to the dominance of .com which for many is the de-facto country code, is comparatively small as .us has only 1.955 million DUM, shrinking by 17%.
Africa is shown very small. Nominet notes “the combined DUMs for the whole continent may be smaller than other areas of the world, but the past 12 months has seen enormous growth: eight country codes have grown by more than 100% this year, including in Zimbabwe, Mali, Egypt and Mozambique. This reflects the fact that Africa has seen one of the fastest growth rates in internet penetration across the world, according to figures from We Are Social and Hootsuite. From 2017 to 2018, there has been a 20% rise in internet users across the African continent, and clearly many of them are registering ccTLDs.”
Click to view larger version of the map
The ccTLD with the largest growth was Kuwait’s country code top level domain .kw that grew 16080%. However in real terms this is only an extra 4,020 domains in a country which doesn’t allow registrations from individuals in other countries.
The largest growth in Africa was Zimbabwe’s .zw which grew 1588% for the year followed by Equatorial Guinea’s .gq (478%), Arab Republic of Egypt’s صم that grew 467%, Mali’s .ml (443%), Gabon’s .ga (289%), Central African Republic’s .cf (251%), Democratic Republic of the Congo’s .cd (116%) and Mozambique’s .mz (104%).
Some ccTLDs that are often used to market to specific sectors find their demand fluctuates. One, the Cocos Islands’ .cc domain, often used by those in the creative community, has shrunk by 44%, while Indonesia’s .id, sometimes used by individuals working in security or identity fields, has shrunk by 80%. But Anguilla’s .ai surged 219% since, reflecting the current boom in Artificial Intelligence.
And of the top 10 ccTLDs, Nominet’s own .uk was the second fastest growing, growing by 12% for the year.