Tag Archives: .info

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry, New gTLDs

New gTLDs Plummet, .NET Slides, While .COM and ccTLDs Continue To Grow: Verisign DNIB

The growth in domain names was once upon a time not so many years ago on a sharp upward trajectory. But over the last couple of years that growth has slowed dramatically, with registrations growing 1.0% in the year to the end of the first quarter in 2018, or 3.2 million, to approximately 333.8 million domain name registrations across all top level domains, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief from Verisign for the first quarter of 2018. For the quarter, registrations grew approximately 1.4 million, or 0.4%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2017.

This growth compares to the year to the end of the first quarter of 2010 when domain name registrations grew by 11 million, or 6%, or the year to the end of the first quarter of 2017 when registrations grew 11.8 million, or 3.7%.

Total country-code top level domain (ccTLD) registrations were approximately 146.3 million at the end of the first quarter of 2018, with an increase of approximately 0.2 million domain name registrations, or 0.1%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2017. ccTLDs increased by approximately 3.2 million domain name registrations, or 2.2%, year over year. This is a noticeable improvement on 12 months ago when the growth was 1.7% year over year. In the year to the end of the first quarter 2010 growth was 3.2%.

The .com and .net TLDs had a combined total of approximately 148.3 million domain name registrations in the domain name base at the end of the first quarter of 2018, with an increase of approximately 1.9 million domain name registrations, or 1.3%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2017.

The .com and .net TLDs had a combined increase of approximately 4.6 million domain name registrations, or 3.2%, year over year. As of 31 March, the .com domain name base totalled approximately 133.9 million domain name registrations, up from 128.4 million 12 months ago, while the .net domain name base totalled approximately 14.4 , down from 15.2 million 12 months ago.

New .com and .net domain name registrations totalled approximately 9.6 million at the end of the first quarter of 2018, compared to 9.5 million domain name registrations for the first quarter of 2017.

Total new generic top level domain (new gTLD) domain name registrations were approximately 20.2 million at the end of the first quarter of 2018, with a decrease of 0.4 million domain name registrations, or 2.0%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2017. New gTLDs decreased by approximately 5.3 million domain name registrations, or 20.7%, year over year.

Among the top 10 TLDs, the first 7 are the same as one year ago – .com is the largest followed by .cn (China – 21.4 million), .tk (Tokelau – 19.9m), .de (Germany – 16.3m), .net (14.4m), .uk (United Kingdom – 12.0m) and .org (10.3m). In eighth place was .info (6.2m) followed by .ru (Russian Federation – 6.1m) and .nl (Netherlands – 5.8m). In 2017 places 8 to 10 consisted of .ru, .nl and .xyz.

In their report Verisign note that their figures include domain names in the .tk ccTLD. .tk is a free ccTLD that provides free domain names to individuals and businesses. Revenue is generated by monetising expired domain names. Domain names no longer in use by the registrant or expired are taken back by the registry and the residual traffic is sold to advertising networks. As such, there are no deleted .tk domain names.

This article can be read with images at:
http://www.domainpulse.com/2018/06/15/new-gtlds-plummet-net-slides-while-com-and-cctlds-continue-to-grow-verisign-dnib/

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

Global Domain Name Growth Continues at a Crawl in Second Quarter

It was only a few years ago that the growth in the number of domain names registered around the world was in the 5 to 10% range every year, sometimes even higher. Today however that growth has slowed to a crawl as many markets around the world reach maturity, even saturation.

In the 12 months to the end of June domain name registrations grew by 6.7 million, or 2.1%, year over year, to a total of 331.9 million domain names across all top level domains according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief from Verisign. For the second quarter of 2017, registrations grew approximately 1.3 million equating to a growth rate of 0.4% over the first quarter.

The .com and .net top level domains had a combined total of approximately 144.3 million domain name registrations as of the end of June. This represents a 0.8% increase year-on-year. There were 129.2 million .com registrations and 15.1 million .net registrations.

New .com and .net domain name registrations totalled 9.2 million during the second quarter of 2017. In the second quarter of 2016, new .com and .net domain name registrations totalled 8.6 million.

Compared to previous years, the global year-on-year growth across all TLDs for the 12 months to 30 June in 2009 was 9%, to 30 June 2012 it was 11.9%, 5.9% to 30 June 2015 and 12.9% to 30 June 2016.

The top 10 TLDs as of the end of June for selected years with total registrations where published in Verisign’s DNIB were:

 

  June 2017 June 2016 June 2015 June 2012 June 2009
1. .com – 129.2million .com – 127.5m .com – 118.5m .com – 103.7m .com
2. .cn (China) – 21.4m .tk .tk .de .cn
3. .tk (Tokelau) – 19.1m .cn .de .net – 14.8m .de
4. .de (Germany) – 16.2m .de .net – 15m .tk .net
5. .net – 15.1m .net – 15.8m .cn .uk .org
6. .uk (United Kingdom) – 10.7m .org .uk .org .uk
7. .org – 10.4m .uk .org .info .info
8. .ru (Russian Federation) – 6.4m .xyz .ru .nl .nl
9. .info – 5.9m .ru .nl .ru .eu (European Union)
10. .nl (Netherlands) – 5.7m .nl .info .cn .biz

Total ccTLD registrations were approximately 144.2 million in the second quarter of 2017, with an increase of 1.1 million, or a 0.8% increase compared to the first quarter of 2017. ccTLDs increased by approximately 3.7 million registrations, or 2.6%, year over year. Without including .tk who gives away its domain names for free, ccTLD domain name registrations increased approximately 603,000 in the second quarter of 2017, a 0.5% increase compared to the first quarter of 2017 and ccTLDs increased by approximately 3.8 million registrations, or 3.1%, year over year.

As of 30 June there were 302 global ccTLD extensions delegated in the root, including Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs), with the top 10 ccTLDs composing 64.8% of all ccTLD registrations.

Registrations among the new generic top level domains totalled 24.3 million, which represents 7.3% of total domain name registrations. The top 10 new gTLDs represented 61.5% of all new gTLD registrations.

To read this story with images, see:
http://www.domainpulse.com/2017/09/15/global-domain-name-growth-a-crawl-second-quarter/

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry, New gTLDs

China Approves 5 Afilias TLDs For Sale Within Country

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has awarded 5 of Afilias’ gTLDs licences to allow them to be sold within the country, the registry operator announced last week.

The gTLDs, 3 of which are legacy generic top level domains – .info, .pro and .mobi, and 2 of which are new gTLDs – .red, and .kim.

The approval means Chinese businesses and other registrants are now legally allowed to operate sites in the 5 gTLDs. Only 15 ASCII TLDs (out of over 1000 worldwide) have been licensed so far, and Afilias operates one third of these privileged TLDs.

Afilias provides backend registry services for over 200 TLDs including 195 new gTLDs. For domain names to be legally sold and used for websites within China, each TLD must be licensed by MIIT to be eligible for sale.

Of the new gTLDs, Afilias’ 195 that have been delegated have 899,000 domains under management with .red having 112,600 and .kim 95,100 according to nTLDstats.com, the 29th and 34th largest of the new gTLDs. Of the legacy gTLDs, .info has 5,367m DUM, .pro 227,000 and .mobi 566,000 according to RegistrarStats.com.

“Afilias is proud that the Afilias China Registry Service, which supports these 5 TLDs, has proven to be among the few that are safe enough to meet MIIT’s high technical standards for licensing,” said Kun Qian, Afilias’ China Country Head. “Afilias now looks forward to working closely with our Chinese registrar partners to expand the market with our broad portfolio of globally recognized TLDs.”

“China’s domain name market is already the world’s second biggest, with over 40M registrations,” said Roland LaPlante, Senior Vice President of Afilias, “and more consumer choice will help it grow faster. As the first western registry operator to have licensed, in-country operations, Afilias provides more choices and an extra measure of confidence for Chinese registrars and registrants alike. Companies and others looking to tap new markets and reach broader audiences should add (or switch to) globally appealing addresses such as .info and .pro, which are intuitively meaningful and have more names available than legacy TLDs like .com.”

Afilias believes these 5 TLDs will serve the needs of both start-ups and established organisations that need a globally appealing internet presence to compete in today’s marketplace. Chinese firms typically have names in localised addresses, but many of them have aspirations beyond the Chinese market—these firms need a global address that sets them apart as a bigger player.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry, New gTLDs

Domains Reach 326 Million With New gTLDs Now 5 Percent Of All Registrations

There were 326.4 million domain names registered across all top level domains (TLDs) around the world at the end of the first quarter 2016, an increase of approximately 12 million domain names, or 3.8 percent over the fourth quarter of 2015, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief published by Verisign. Registrations have grown by 32.4 million, or 11 percent, year over year.As of 31 March, new gTLD registrations totalled 16.1 million, which represented 4.9 percent of total domain name registrations. The top 10 new gTLDs represented over half (54.8%) of all new gTLD domain name registrations. The largest of the new gTLDs were .xyz and .top, which accounted for 16.5 and 11.1 percent of all new gTLD registrations respectively.Total country code TLD (ccTLD) registrations were 148.2 million domain names, a 2.6 percent increase quarter over quarter, and an 8.2 percent increase year over year. The top 10 ccTLDs as of 31 March were .tk (Tokelau), .cn (China), .de (Germany), .uk (United Kingdom), .ru (Russian Federation), .nl (Netherlands), .eu (European Union), .br (Brazil), .au (Australia) and .fr (France).The .com and .net TLDs experienced aggregate growth, reaching a combined total of approximately 142.5 million domain names in the domain name base in the first quarter of 2016. This represents a 7.1 percent increase year over year. The base of registered names in .com equalled 126.6 million names, while .net equalled 15.9 million names, the latter figure having being static for around three years.New .com and .net registrations totalled 10 million during the first quarter of 2016. In the first quarter of 2015, new .com and .net registrations totalled 8.7 million.There has also been a large jump in the growth of .com and .net domain names redirecting to popular global social media and e-commerce sites compared to Q1 2015. Weibo had the largest growth of 49 percent followed by LinkedIn (35%), Etsy (30%), Facebook (27%), Amazon.com (25%) and Twitter (23%). Verisign don’t give total numbers and for most at least it is likely to be growth from a comparatively small base.Combining gTLDs and ccTLDs, the largest by zone size were .com, .tk, .cn, .de, .net, .org, .uk, .ru, .nl and .info. There were 291 global ccTLD extensions delegated in the root, including Internationalised Domain Names (IDN), with the top 10 ccTLDs composing 67.4 percent of all ccTLD registrations.Regarding .tk, Verisign quotes from a Freenom news release that the Tokelauan ccTLD is a free ccTLD that provides free domain names to individuals and businesses. Revenue is generated by monetising expired domain names. Domain names no longer in use by the registrant or expired are taken back by the registry and the residual traffic is sold to advertising networks. As such, there are no deleted .tk domain names.It also means that while .tk is the largest ccTLD, it’s numbers are very misleading when it comes to actual usage and demand.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry, New gTLDs

Global Domain Registrations Grow 9% In 2015 To 314 Million, But Growth Across TLDs Uneven

The total number of domain names registered around the world grew to 314 million at the end of 2015, a growth rate of nine percent (25.9 million) for the 12 months and five percent (15m) for the fourth quarter, according to the latest Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief published Thursday.For the largest TLD of them all, .com, it’s growth is unassailable. There are now 124 million .com domains registered, up from 115.6 million a year ago, a growth of 7.3 percent. But its Verisign stablemate .net has only grown from 15 to 15.8 million, or 5.3 percent, over the same period.The .net TLD is one of a number of gTLDs, along with .us, that seemingly have been knocked by the growth of the new gTLDs. In the 12 months to 31 December there has been a significant growth in new gTLD registrations.The largest TLDs in order by zone size were .com, .tk, .cn, .de, .net, .org, .uk, .ru, .nl and .info.New gTLDs have been growing strongly. As of 31 December 2014 there were 478 new gTLDs were delegated into the root and new gTLD registrations totalled 3.6 million, or 2.3 percent of total gTLD registrations. Fast forward 12 months and there are 10.9 million new gTLD registrations, which represents 3.5 percent of the total domains registered in all gTLDs. Fast forward another three and a bit months and there are 16.8 million domains registered across the 968 new gTLDs that have been delegated. The top ten new gTLDs represented 51.9 percent of all new gTLD registrations.In the ccTLDs, growth has also been strong with approximately 144.4 million domains registered at the close of the fourth quarter of 2015, an increase of 6.6 million domain names, or a 4.8 percent increase compared to the third quarter of 2015. For the year, ccTLD registrations increased by approximately 10.4 million, or 7.7 percent. Without including .tk, which has over 26 million registrations virtually all given away for free, ccTLD quarter-over-quarter growth was six percent and year-over-year growth was nine percent.The top 10 ccTLDs, as of 31 December, were .tk (Tokelau), .cn (China), .de (Germany), .uk (United Kingdom), .ru (Russian Federation), .nl (Netherlands), .eu (European Union), .br (Brazil), .au (Australia) and .fr (France).Again as of 31 December, there were 289 global ccTLD extensions delegated in the root, including Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs), with the top 10 ccTLDs comprising 67.2 percent of all ccTLD registrations.But where is the uneven growth apart from .net? Looking at RegistrarStats.com growth appears to have largely plateaued for .org but dropped significantly for several other gTLDs including .org, whose dropped started in 2012, .biz (2014), .mobi (2014), .tel (2011) and .xxx (2012). One ccTLD that has also shown a noticeable decline is .us whose decline also commenced in 2014.A gTLD that has grown noticeably recently that isn’t a new gTLD is .pro who changed their eligibility requirements.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

Global Domain Registrations Edge Closer To 300m: Verisign

The number of domain names registered around the world grew by 2.2 million, or 0.8 percent, to 296 million at the end of June according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief from Verisign.With similar growth, the 300 million mark should be reached around the end of 2015. Worldwide registrations have grown by 16.4 million, or 5.9 percent, year over year.The growth, the envy of many industries, was a marked slowdown from the first quarter when six million domains were added to the base of registered domain names. And it was also a marked slowdown compared to the same quarter in 2014 where registrations grew 1.4 percent or four million and year-on-year registrations grew 7.2 percentThe .com and .net TLDs experienced aggregate growth in the second quarter of 2015, reaching a combined total of approximately 133.5 million .com and .net domain names in the domain name base. This represents a 3.1 percent increase year over year, an increase that is solely at the hands of .com as .net registrations have stabilised at around the 15 million registrations mark, down from a peak of 15.2 million around a year ago.The .net TLD is suffering somewhat at the hands of the new gTLDS, as are several other gTLDs and .us which have seen registrations decline since their introduction. But new gTLDs currently only account for two percent of all registrations or 5.8 million as of the end of June. Of the new gTLDs .xyz accounts for 13.7 percent of this 5.8 million, making it still by far the largest.For ccTLDs the largely free .tk (Tokelau) ccTLD is still the largest while second remains .de (Germany) which recently passed the 16 million registrations mark. Rounding out the top ten ccTLDs were cn (China), .uk (United Kingdom), .ru (Russian Federation), .nl (Netherlands), .eu (European Union), .br (Brazil), .au (Australia) and .fr (France).If a top ten of all TLDs is compiled .com is by far the largest, .net slots into fourth place, .org into seventh and .info tenth. The top ten then would be com, .tk, .de, .net, .cn, .uk, .org, .ru, .nl and .info.In the second quarter, Verisign processed 8.7 million new domain name registrations for .com and .net, as compared to 8.5 million domain names for the same period in 2014.During the second quarter of 2015, Verisign’s average daily Domain Name System (DNS) query load was 111 billion across all TLDs operated by Verisign, with a peak of 182 billion. Compared to the previous quarter, the daily average decreased 7.1 percent and the peak increased 10.2 percent. Year over year, the daily average query load increased 16.6 percent and the peak query load decreased by 10.8 percent.The latest Domain Name Industry Brief also highlights how the use of the DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities (DANE) protocol can help address long-standing security gaps in the Internet. For many years, numerous cryptographically enhanced protocols have existed. Standards and suites like Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME), Transport Layer Security (TLS), IP Security (IPSec), Open Pretty Good Privacy (OpenPGP) and many others have offered a range of protections and have been implemented by a wealth of code. However, the reality is that Internet security protocols have excluded a very important step from their security analyses; secure key learning. Read “Using DANE for Authentication of Internet Services” to learn how this available protocol can address this issue.To download the latest Domain Name Industry Brief, or even any recent ones in their archive, go to:
www.verisign.com/en_US/innovation/dnib/index.xhtml

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry, New gTLDs

Global Domain Registrations Climb Six Million To 294 Million In First Quarter 2015: Verisign

The total number of domain names registered across all top level domains around the world grew by six million in the first quarter of 2015, to a total of 294 million domains as of 31 March, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief from Verisign released Tuesday.The increase of six million domain names globally equates to a growth rate of 1.9 percent over the fourth quarter of 2014. Worldwide registrations have grown by 17.8 million, or 6.5 percent, year over year.The .com and .net TLDs experienced aggregate growth in the first quarter of 2015, reaching a combined total of approximately 133.0 million .com and .net domain names in the domain name base. This represents a 3.1 percent increase year over year. As of 31 March, the domain name base of .com equalled 117.9 million names, while .net equalled 15.1 million names. While .com registrations have grown by 4.7 million registrations in the last 12 months, .net registrations have declined by around 100,000, a decline experienced by a number of gTLDs following the introduction of the first of the new gTLDs in early 2014.The .com gTLD remains by far the largest of all TLDs. In the gTLDs it is followed by .net and then .org (10.5m) and .info (5.2m).On the new gTLDs, they accounted for 4.8 million domain registrations as of 31 March or 1.6 percent of all domain registrations with .xyz by far the largest. It currently has 998,000 registrations according to nTLDstats.com.Of the ccTLDs, .tk (Tokelau) remains by far the largest and currently has 24.5 million mostly free registrations. Next is .de (Germany – 15.9m), .cn (China – 11.9m), .uk (United Kingdom – 10.6m), .ru (Russian Federation – 4.9m), .nl (Netherlands – 5.6m), .eu (European Union – 3.9m), .br (Brazil – 2.9m), .au (Australia – 3.0m) and .fr (France – 2.9m).*In the first quarter, Verisign processed 8.7 million new domain name registrations for .com and .net, as compared to 8.6 million domain names for the same period in 2014.During the first quarter of 2015, Verisign’s average daily Domain Name System (DNS) query load was 119 billion across all TLDs operated by Verisign, with a peak of 165 billion. Compared to the previous quarter, the daily average increased 8.6 percent and the peak increased 13.1 percent. Year over year, the daily average query load increased 40.2 percent and the peak query load increased 37.9 percent. * The TLD registration figures are the latest from registry websites and using domain-recht.de and registrarstats.com data and are more recent than the figures used by Verisign.

Domain Name Aftermarket

Another Big Week For Short Domains on Sales Chart

Domain Name Journal logoIt was another big week for short domains on the Domain Name Journal list of top reported sales list, week-ending 10 May, with a four-character domain topping the chart.

The top seller was same.com, which sold for $233,333 through GetYourDomain. Coming in second and third was nfc.com which sold for €70,000 ($78,400) veilingen.nl (€31,000/$34,720), both through Sedo.

There were five three-character .com sales and three four-character domains on the top 20 chart. And on the TLD side of things there were 14 .com sales, two .com.au sales and one each for .nl, .de, .info and .in

On the aftermarket side of things, there were 15 sales through Sedo and two through Netfleet.

To check out the Domain Name Journal chart of top reported sales in more detail, go to:
dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2015/20150520.htm

Domain Name Aftermarket

Car.info Tops Sales Chart, But No Six-Figure Sales

Domain Name Journal logoCar.info was the biggest reported sale on the Domain Name Journal chart of top reported sales for the week ending 29 March. The domain sold for $76,000 through Sedo, an even $10,000 ahead of the second biggest sale, import.com, in a sale through Heritage Auctions. And goliath.com came in third, selling for $60,000 through Flippa.

Sedo was the biggest sales outlet for the week, with 17 of the top 21 sales (there was a tie for 20th place). And on the TLD side of things, there were 16 .com sales and one each for .info, .net, .me, .co.uk and .de.

To check out the chart of top reported sales for the week ending 29 March, go to:
dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2015/20150408.htm

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry, New gTLDs

Global Domain Growth Slows To Almost Half Of Two Years Ago: Verisign

The number of domain names around the world continues to grow, but the growth continues to slow even as new gTLDs add over 4.5 million registrations in the last 12 months.Four million domain names were added to the internet in the fourth quarter of 2014, bringing the total number of registered domain names to 288 million worldwide across all top-level domains as of 31 December, 2014, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief.The increase of four million domain names globally equates to a growth rate of 1.3 percent over the third quarter of 2014. Worldwide registrations have grown by 16.9 million, or 6.2 percent, year over year.This compares to an increase of five million domains in the fourth quarter of 2013 and 6.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2012, equating to growth rates of 1.9 and 2.5 percent respectively over the previous quarters. On a yearly basis worldwide registrations grew by 18.5 million, or 7.3 percent, in 2013 and 26.6 million, or 11.8 percent in 2012, year over year.The .com and .net TLDs experienced aggregate growth in the fourth quarter of 2014, reaching a combined total of approximately 130.6 million domain names in the domain name base for .com and .net. This represents a 2.7 percent increase year over year. As of 31 December the base of registered names in .com equalled 115.6 million names, while .net equalled 15.0 million names.New .com and .net registrations totalled 8.2 million during the fourth quarter of 2014. In the fourth quarter of 2013, new .com and .net registrations totalled 8.2 million, and 8.0 and 7.9 million in the corresponding quarters in 2012 and 2011.Total ccTLD registrations were 134.0 million domain names, a 1.5 percent increase quarter over quarter, and an 8.7 percent increase year over year. The corresponding figures for two years ago were a 4.2 percent increase quarter over quarter, and a 13.2 percent increase year over year in the base.The order of the top TLDs in terms of zone size changed slightly when compared to the third quarter, as .nl (Netherlands) moved up a ranking from the tenth-largest TLD to the ninth-largest TLD, resulting in .info moving down one ranking to the tenth-largest TLD.Among the 10 largest ccTLDs, .tk (Tokelau) grew the fastest, with 4.0 percent overall quarter-over-quarter growth. At the end of December there were 285 global ccTLD extensions delegated in the root (including Internationalised Domain Names), with the top 10 ccTLDs composing 67.2 percent of all ccTLD registrations.At the end of the fourth quarter of 2014, 478 new gTLDs were delegated into the root; 65 of which were delegated during the fourth quarter of 2014. New gTLD registrations totalled 3.6 million, or 2.3 percent of total gTLD registrations.During the fourth quarter of 2014, Verisign’s average daily Domain Name System (DNS) query load was 110 billion across all TLDs operated by Verisign, with a peak of 146 billion. Compared to the previous quarter, the daily average decreased 3.7 percent and the peak decreased 54.0 percent. Year over year, the daily average query load increased 33.5 percent and the peak query load increased 47.1 percent. Two years ago the query load was 77 billion across all TLDs operated by Verisign with a peak of 123 billion.The report also includes a short article on understanding the implications of the DNS control plane and the full benefits of DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) can help to minimise your attack surface and enhance your security posture.An archive of Verisign Domain Name Industry Briefs is available from:
www.verisigninc.com/en_US/innovation/dnib/index.xhtml