Tag Archives: .info

Domain Name Aftermarket

Swedish ccTLD Tops 2015’s First Sales Chart In Six-Figure Sale

Domain Name Journal logoThe domain name aftermarket started off in unusual style with the .se domain tv.se selling for SEK2,180,500 ($265,149) through Tradera, a Swedish online commerce service.

The sale easily topped the Domain Name Journal chart of reported sales for the fortnight to 18 January with izy.com second, selling for $40,000 in a private sale while a pair of domains sold through Sedo, putzfrau.de and babycity.com, sold for €32,000 ($36,480) and $35,000 respectively.

As usual, .com sales dominated the chart with 12 of the top 20 while there was one each for .se, .de, .net, .es, .info, .vn, org and .ca.

And also as usual Sedo topped the list as an aftermarket outlet with a more than usually dominant 16 of the top 20 sales.

To check out the Domain Name Journal chart of top reported sales for the fortnight ending 18 January, go to:
dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2015/20150128.htm

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

Global Domain Registration Growth Slows With .NET In Decline: Verisign DNIB

The number of domain names under management around the world is creeping closer towards the 300 million mark, with four million added, an increase of 1.6 percent, across all top level domains in the third quarter of 2014 taking the total to 284 million according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief published by Verisign.For the 12 months to the end of September 2014, registrations, or domains under management, increased by 18.1 million or 6.8 percent. This compares to the 12 months to the end of September 2012 when registrations grew by 26.4 million, or 12 percent.For .com and .net, while they experienced aggregate growth in the third quarter of 2014, .net is in decline in total registration numbers. The combined total for the two gTLDs was 130.0 million in the adjusted zone for .com and .net, up 10.1 million in two years. This represents a 3.3 percent increase year over year compared to a 7.1 percent increase for the equivalent 12 month period two years ago. As of 30 September 2014, the base of registered names in .com equalled 114.9 million names, while .net equalled 15.1 million names compared to 105 million and 14.9 million respectively two years ago.Looking back at previous DNIBs, .net registrations peaked at around 15.2 million at the end of 2013 and early 2014. But since then the gTLD has shed around 300,000 domains coinciding with the introduction of new gTLDs.New .com and .net registrations totalled 8.7 million during the third quarter of 2014, compared to 7.8 million in 2012 and 8.3 million in 2013.The top 10 largest gTLDs and ccTLDs marketed as gTLDs by zone size were .com, .tk, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .co, .mobi, .me and .tv, as of 30 September, accounting for for 179.2 million domain name registrations, or 63.1 percent of the total global domain name registrations.Total ccTLD registrations were approximately 132.1 million in the third quarter, with the addition of 3.2 million domain names, or a 2.5 percent increase compared to the second quarter of 2014. This is an increase of approximately 12.8 million domain names, or 10.7 percent, from a year ago.The combined ccTLDs have also been experiencing a slowing of growth. In the year to the end of September 2012, there were 18 million domain names added, or an increase of 20.7 percent.Among the 10 largest ccTLDs, .tk grew the fastest, at 9.1 percent overall quarter over quarter growth. There were 285 global ccTLD extensions delegated in the root (including Internationalised Domain Names), with the top 10 ccTLDs comprising 67.1 percent of all ccTLD registrations.For the new gTLDs, there were 413 new gTLDs delegated into the root at the end of the quarter, with 91 new gTLDs delegated during the third quarter of 2014. New gTLD registrations totalled 2.0 million, or 1.3 percent of total gTLD registrations.During the third quarter of 2014, Verisign’s average daily Domain Name System (DNS) query load was 114 billion (67 billion in 2012) across all TLDs operated by Verisign, with a peak of 318 billion (102 billion in 2012), the highest average and peak query loads in a single quarter to date. Compared to the previous quarter, the daily average increased 20.1 percent and the peak increased 55.6 percent. Year over year, the daily average query load increased 40 percent and the peak query load increased 202.1 percent.For those interested, this quarter’s DNIB featured article is “Cryptocurrency and the Domain Name System” offering a primer on cryptocurrency and the DNS.Copies of the 2014 third quarter Domain Name Industry Brief, as well as previous reports, can be obtained at VerisignInc.com/DNIB.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

Registrations Of .EU Domains Continue To Grow Healthily

EURid logoThe total number of .eu registrations grew by 4.7 percent in the third quarter of 2014 compared with the same quarter last year, according to the progress report released last week by the .eu registry EURid.

The increase for the quarter was 50,132 domain names under management, a net increase of 1.3 percent to 3.88 million. This made .eu the eleventh largest TLD in the world. The largest was .com with 114.576 million registrations followed by .tk (Tokelau) with 26.785m, .de (Germany – 15.794m), .net (15.083m), .cn (China – 1–.907m), .uk (United Kingdom) – 10.514), .org (10.399), .info (5.591m), .nl (Netherlands – 5.506m), .ru (Russian Federation – 4.895m) while .br (Brazil – 3.493m) followed.

“As the new gTLDs continue jostle for position in the changing TLD landscape, our healthy growth rate has further underlined that .eu has a firm foothold in the domain name market,” commented EURid General Manager Marc Van Wesemael.

Indeed, .eu registrations increased in 24 of the 28 EU member states. Malta, Greece and Luxembourg each saw growth of more than 5 percent.

The countries in the top ten list account for 87.6 percent of all .eu registrations. German residents have by far the most .eu domain name registrations, followed by residents of the Netherlands and France.

Residents in the European Economic Area (EEA) countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway became eligible to register .eu domain names on 8 January 2014. At the end of the third quarter registrants in Norway had registered 5,685 names, in Iceland 177 and Liechtenstein 78.

The survey also found the Netherlands has the highest density of domains registered of any European country, with 328.2 .nl domains registered per 1,000 people. Denmark was next with 226.2 .dk domains per 1,000 people followed by Germany with 196.1, the United Kingdom with 164.5, Iceland with 154.4 .is domains per 1,000 and Luxembourg with 154.0 .lu domains per 1,000.

The countries with the highest densities of .eu domains were Malta with 35.7 per thousand followed by the Netherlands with 30.2 and Luxembourg with 28.7.

The third quarter also saw EURid launch its new registration system. EURid implemented the new system to increase performance and to better meet RFC standards and so provide an improved service to the .eu registrar community and consequently to .eu domain name holders.

The full report is available for download at link.eurid.eu/reports.

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

Five Million Domains Added In Q1 Taking Global Total To 276 Million: Verisign

Five million domain names were added across all TLDs across the globe in the first quarter of 2014, replicating the number added in the fourth quarter of 2013, Verisign announced in their latest Domain Name Industry Brief, taking the total Domains Under Management to 276 million as of 31 March.The increase of five million domain names in the first quarter globally equates to a growth rate of 1.7 percent for the quarter, compared to 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter 2013. Worldwide registrations have grown by 19.3 million (18.5 million in the calendar year of 2013), or 7.5 percent (7.3%), year over year.The .com and .net TLDs experienced aggregate growth, reaching a combined total of approximately 128.5 million domain names in the adjusted zone in the first quarter of 2014. This represents a four percent increase year over year. This compares to the year ending 31 December 2013, when the figures were 127.2 million and five percent. As of 31 March, 2014, the DUM in .com equalled 113.2 million names (112m at the end of Q4), while .net equalled 15.2 million names, the same as for the end of Q4, 2013.New .com and .net registrations totalled 8.6 million during the first quarter of 2014. In the first quarter of 2013, new .com and .net registrations totalled 8.8 million. These figures were up on the fourth quarter of 2013 where new registrations were 8.2 million and 8.0 million in Q4 2012. This could reflect seasonal variations but it could also show new gTLDs aren’t impeding new .com registrations.In their report, Verisign provide some pieces of trivia, including the 69 percent of all .com websites are in English. Another two are that over 95 percent of networks are compromised in some way while internet users send 204 million emails per minute.Among ccTLDs, 27.1 million domain names were added, a 2.9 percent increase quarter over quarter, and a 13.1 percent increase year over year. Among the top TLDs overall, .ru (Russia) moved up one place to eighth, swapping places with .info.The largest TLDs in order by zone size were .com, .tk (Tokelau – 25.5m), .de (Germany – 15.7m), .net, .uk (United Kingdom – 10.5m – Nov 2013), .org (10.4m), .cn (China – 10.7m), .ru (Russian Federation – 4.9m – August 2013), .info (5.6m) and .nl (Netherlands – 5.5m).*Among the 20 largest ccTLDs, four exceeded 4 percent overall quarter-over-quarter growth: Tokelau (8.0 percent), Argentina (7.2 percent), India (15.2 percent) and Colombia (12.4 percent). This marks four straight quarters where Tokelau has exceeded 4 percent growth.As of 31 March, there were 283 global ccTLD extensions delegated in the root (including Internationalised Domain Names), with the top 10 ccTLDs comprising 65.8 percent of all ccTLD registrations.Again as of 31 March, there were 198 new gTLDs delegated into the root; 125 of which were delegated during the first quarter of 2014.During the first quarter of 2014, Verisign’s average daily Domain Name System (DNS) query load was 85 billion across all TLDs operated by Verisign, with a peak of 120 billion. Compared to the previous quarter, the daily average increased 3.4 percent and the peak increased 20.6 percent. Year over year, the daily average query load increased 14.8 percent and the peak query load increased 6 percent.As more companies bring their businesses online, there is an increased concern over domain name security. This quarter’s featured article, “The Domain Threat Landscape: Protecting Critical Infrastructure Requires a Layered Security Approach” provides a brief summary of domain name hijacking and some preventative measures and tools to help ensure your domain name is secure.The report is available for download from:
www.verisigninc.com/en_US/innovation/dnib/index.xhtml * Registry statistics are sourced from RegistrarStats.com, domain-recht.de and individual registries. Registries sometimes do not provide up to date statistics publicly which explains discrepancies.

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

.TK Cements Position As Largest ccTLD Passing 25 Million Registrations

The number of “active” .tk domains has passed the 25 million mark to cement its position as the largest ccTLD, and second largest TLD.

According to the nic.tk website, the number of domains under management is currently more than 25,089,000. The growth has been phenomenal for the island ccTLD that passed the seven millionth DUM in late 2011 and the largest ccTLD in late 2012.

The island nation located north east of New Zealand and Australia in the South Pacific is a New Zealand territory with a population of 1,337 according to the CIA Factbook.

The exponential growth of Dot TK continues because of its free domain name registration process, which has been somewhat controversial due to the amount of phishing activity linked to .tk domains. But the registry has worked hard to improve the problem.

Dot TK, the registry, introduced an anti-abuse API to allow trusted partners to shut down sites that use .tk. Netcraft noted in September 2013 that “this dramatically reduced the average uptime of phishing sites which used .tk domains, making it a less attractive platform for fraudsters. Indeed, .tk does not even appear within the top 50 phishiest TLDs today; however, considering .tk and .ml share the same owner, this makes it somewhat surprising to see .ml being so heavily abused already.”

The largest TLD is .com with 113.7 million DUM followed by .tk, then .de (Germany) with 15.8m. Following is .net (15.1m), .uk (United Kingdom) with “over 10.5 million”, .cn (China – 10.6m), .org (10.4m), .info (5.7m), .nl (Netherlands (5.5m) and .ru (Russia – 4.9m). The largest of the new gTLDs, .xyz, has over 348,000 DUM.

The above statistics were sourced from ccTLD registry websites, RegistrarStats.com, nTLDstats.com and domain-recht.de.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

.EU Continues Solid Growth With Registrations Increasing 2.2% To 3.8m In Q1

EURid logoThe total number of .eu registrations grew by 2.2 percent in Q1 2014 to 3.79 million, according to the latest progress report released last week by the .eu registry EURid.

“This relatively high growth rate is thanks, in part, to our high renewal rate of above 80% and the higher than expected level of new registrations,” commented EURid General Manager Marc Van Wesemael.

“The latter is especially comforting as it shows that the popularity of.eu is further growing in a crowded market place, even as the many new gTLDs jostle for position.”

The report also found .eu registrations increased in 27 of the 28 EU member states with Croatia and Portugal both seeing growth of more than 10 percent.

According to the report, the number of Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) in the .eu portfolio at the end of Q1 2014 was 52 683, or 1.4 percent of all registrations. The number of IDNs as a percentage of new registrations is at the same level as that of other registries. As well, the number of DNSSEC-signed names was 261 304 or 6.9 percent of all registrations.

The .eu TLD is the seventh largest ccTLD and eleventh largest TLD overall according to the Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief for the last quarter of 2013. The largest TLD is .com with 113.7 million registrations, followed by .tk (Tokelau) with 24.5 million, then .de (Germany – 15.7m), .net (15.1m), .uk (United Kingdom – 10.5m), .org (10.4m), .cn (China – 10.6m), .info (5.7m), .nl (Netherlands – 5.4m), .ru (Russia – 4.9m) and then .eu.

In addition to the growth, EURid also announced during the second quarter, on 12 April to be precise, the European Commission officially re-confirmed EURid as the registry manager for the .eu top-level domain for the next five years.

The full report is available for download at link.eurid.eu/reports.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

Half Of 3.5 Million Domains Registered In Spain Are .ES

Spanish registry logoApril statistics compiled by the .es registry, Red.es, show there are 3,451,863 domain names registered in Spain by businesses and individuals with more than half (50.04%) being .es domains.

Other TLDs with a significant market share are .com with 1,727,169 registrations and a market share of 35.29%). Following is .net (4.61%), .org (3.13%), .eu (3.09%), .cat (2.17%), .info (1.28%) and .biz (0.38%).

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

Global Domain Registrations Grow 7.3 Percent In 2013 To 271 Million

The number of registered domain names keeps growing, with five million domain names added in the final quarter of 2013, reports Verisign in their latest Domain Name Industry Brief. The number of registered domains was 271 million globally at the end of 2013. For the full year, registrations grew by 18.5 million, or 7.3 percent, year over year.In the market leading TLD when it comes to registrations, .com grew to 112 million registrations, while .net grew to 15.2 million. Their combined 127.2 million registrations represent a five percent increase for 2013. For the final quarter of 2013 new .com and .net registrations totalled 8.2 million, slightly higher for the same quarter in 2012 when registrations grew by 8.2 million.The ten largest TLDs at the end of 2013 but with current registration figures were, in order, .com (113.17m), .tk (Tokelau – 22.10m)+, .de (Germany – 15.75m), .net (15.18m), .uk (United Kingdom – 10.55m), .org (10.43m), .cn (China – 10.29m), .info (5.79m), .ru (Russian Federation – 4.93m) and .nl (Netherlands – 5.45m).*Total ccTLD registrations were approximately 123.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2013 with the addition of 3.9 million domain names, or a 3.3 percent increase compared to the third quarter according to the report. This is an increase of approximately 13.3 million domain names, or 12.1 percent, from a year ago.Among the 20 largest ccTLDs, two exceeded four percent overall quarter-over-quarter growth: China and Tokelau. This marks four straight quarters where China (21.1 percent) and Tokelau (7.1 percent) have exceeded 4 percent growth.As of 31 December, there were 283 global ccTLD extensions that are delegated in the root (including Internationalised Domain Names), with the top 10 ccTLDs comprising 65.6 percent of all ccTLD registrations.During the fourth quarter of 2013, Verisign’s average daily Domain Name System (DNS) query load was 82 billion across all TLDs operated by Verisign, with a peak of 100 billion. Compared to the previous quarter, the daily average increased 0.9 percent and the peak decreased 5.5 percent. Year over year, the daily average increased 6.4 percent and the peak decreased 19.2 percent.In a plug to encourage registrants to consider .com domains instead of another gTLD including the hundreds of new gTLDs that will soon be available or a ccTLD, Verisign provides the number of possible domains that are available from four to 13 characters. For four character .com domains, there are over 845,600 combinations still available. Undoubtedly most of these are for domains that are random combinations of letters and numbers. And when it gets to the possible number of 13 character .com domains available, Verisign report there are over 230.5 quintillion.As the Internet continues to evolve, it is crucial for enterprises to have a powerful and resilient infrastructure that maintains 24/7 availability. “DNS Outages: The Challenges of Operating Critical Infrastructure” provides a high-level overview of the implications of DNS outages and the importance of staying ahead of threats.Verisign’s Domain Name Industry Brief can be downloaded from www.verisigninc.com/en_US/innovation/dnib/index.xhtml. * The statistics come from registry websites, registrarstats.com and domain-recht.de and uses current statistics as the Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief does not provide figures apart from for .com and .net. + Revenue for .tk domains is generated by monetising the expired domain names. Domains that are no longer used by the registrant or are expired are taken back by Freenom and the residual traffic is sold to advertisement networks. Next to this primary source of income, additional revenue will be generated by offering digital white labeled services, such as hosting packages, SSL certificates and others, to free domain name users. Source: www.businesswire.com/news/home/20131216006048/en/Freenom-Closes-3M-Series-Funding.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

DENIC Announces New Management Team

DENIC CEO Dr Jörg SchweigerWhat is effectively the world’s largest ccTLD has announced a new management structure. Well, OK, .tk is the “largest” ccTLD, but they aren’t “real” registrations. Given that newspapers given away at airports and fitness centres for example shouldn’t be and often aren’t counted in their circulation figures, registrations of most .tk domains are free and their domains under management (DUM) figure should take this into account. But as with newspapers given away, it’s a business model that works for them.

Anyway, DENIC, the operator of the .DE (Germany) registry that boasts a very nice 15.681 million DUM has announced a new management structure following Sabine Dolderer stepping down as CEO in February after 20 years with the organisation. Dolderer joined DENIC in 1994 when all administration and DNS services for .DE were provided by a university.

Under the new management structure, Dr. Jörg Schweiger, who has been Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of DENIC since 2007 will be the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with effect from 1 March 2014. The newly created position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) will be assumed by Andreas Musielak who will commence early in May 2014.

DENIC COO Andreas MusielakDr. Jörg Schweiger will continue to be responsible for Information and Telecommunication Technology, Information Security, Research, Process and Product Management as well as HR. He will further be in charge of Public Relations and Government & Regulatory Affairs. Andreas Musielak will be responsible for Finance and Legal as well as for all Member and End Customer Services.

“With Jörg Schweiger, we will consistently maintain DENIC’s current course of sustainable business excellence, assuring prime resilience and security of DENIC’s overall systems and services infrastructure at all times. Andreas Musielak will complement this pursuit by providing new impetus in the field of customer orientation,” says Thomas Keller, chairman of the Supervisory Board of DENIC eG.

The new member of the Executive Board, Andreas Musielak, has an extensive background in the fields of finance and commercial management. Prior to joining DENIC, he worked three years with WAN-IFRA, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. In his role as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) he had global responsibility for Finance, HR, Legal and IT, at WAN-IFRA’s two head offices, in Germany and France, and all its international business sites. Up to 2013, he was also in charge of the Association’s Membership division. Andreas Musielak has a degree in Business Administration from the University of Applied Sciences of Darmstadt, Germany, with a focus on finance and marketing.

Next to the CEO and COO positions, DENIC’s Executive Board will continue to include the two honorary members Helga Krüger and Carsten Schiefner, who were re-elected at DENIC’s general assembly, in 2013.

For those interested, registration figures for the ten largest TLDs are:

  1. .COM – 112.6m
  2. .TK (Tokelau) – 22.1m
  3. .DE (Germany) – 15.7m
  4. .NET – 15.2m
  5. .UK (United Kingdom) – 10.5m
  6. .ORG – 10.4m
  7. .CN (China) – 10.3m
  8. .INFO – 5.7m
  9. .NL (Netherlands) – 5.4m
  10. .RU (Russia) – 4.9m.

Figures above come from registrarstats.com, registry websites and domain-recht.de.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

Non-US .ORG Registrations Grow Strongly As Overall Registrations Grow 2.6% In 2013

Public Interest Registry logoWhile .org registrations have slowed overall, the number of registrations outside of North America is growing strongly with nearly 40 percent of registrations stemming from abroad the latest Dashboard report from the Public Interest Registry shows.

In the 2013 calendar year, domains under registration (DUM) grew by 2.6 percent. But Asia continues to be a core growth region for .org, China, Japan and India are all represented in the top ten countries for .org registrations, and together comprise approximately six percent of the total .org market share. In fact, India alone has increased its .org registration market share by 50 percent between 2012 and 2013 and now boasts more than 159,700 .org domains. The United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Australia, and France remain the top five international markets for .org registrants by country outside of the U.S. overall.

The report reveals that 206,542 new .org domains were registered from January to December 2013, bringing the total number of .org DUM to more than 10,346,000 globally.

The largest TLD is .com, currently with 112.4 million registrations, followed by .tk (Tokelau – 21.5m), .de (Germany – 15.7m) and then .net (15.2m). China’s ccTLD, .cn has around 10.8m, .uk (United Kingdom (10.5m), while .org now has around 10.4m, .info (5.7m), .nl (Netherlands – 5.4m) and .ru (Russia – 4.9m).

For more information, see the Public Interest Registry news release below:

Public Interest Registry Releases Report Demonstrating Extended Growth Of The .ORG Domain In 2013

“The Dashboard” Report Shows Steady Rise in International Registrations

Public Interest Registry – the not-for-profit operator of the .ORG domain – today released the results of its bi-annual domain name report, “The Dashboard,” detailing the increased growth of .ORG throughout 2013. The report reveals that 206,542 new .ORG domains were registered from January to December 2013, bringing the total number of .ORG domains under registration (DUM) to more than 10,346,000 globally.

Other findings outlined in “The Dashboard” include the following:

  • the number of .ORG domains under registration (DUM) grew by 2.6 percent in 2013
  • when it comes to renewal, 85 percent of .ORG registrants renew their domains for at least three years or more
  • the organisational make-up of the global .ORG community remains diverse with the majority of registrants (20 percent) representing wiki and open source-related causes
  • charities, schools, and recreational clubs and groups are all equally represented at 8 percent, respectively.

“The Dashboard” also highlights notable growth outside of North America, with nearly 40 percent of .ORG registrations stemming from overseas. For example, as Asia continues to be a core growth region for .ORG, China, Japan and India are all represented in the top 10 countries for .ORG registrations, and together comprise approximately 6 percent of the total .ORG market share. In fact, India alone has increased its .ORG registration market share by 50 percent between 2012 and 2013 and now boasts more than 159,700 .ORG domains. The United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Australia, and France remain the top five international markets for .ORG registrants by country outside of the U.S. overall.

“Historically, .ORG has been the trusted home for nonprofits all over the world. While that credibility still resonates today, it’s clear that the composition of users who carry out their passions, their ideas, and their missions on the .ORG domain is broadening,” said Brian Cute, CEO of Public Interest Registry, “Now more than ever, we’re seeing that .ORG is where action begins – for art and cultural institutions, clubs, sports teams, environmental and educational groups, as well as scientific, philosophic, and religious organisations. It is also the ideal domain to exercise social good or social entrepreneurship because .ORG is for businesses that think differently. As we charge ahead into 2014, we’re optimistic that we will reach new heights in Public Interest Registry’s pursuit to maintain .ORG as the trusted domain for individuals, businesses, and organisations worldwide, while also serving as a foundation for and complement to our soon-to-be-launched .NGO|.ONG domain offerings for global non-governmental organisations.”

Within “The Dashboard,” Public Interest Registry offers insight into its vision and preparations for the 2014 public unveiling of the .NGO and .ONG domains – in addition to four other internationalized domain names (IDNs) that translate into “organisation,” “org” or “structured organisation” in Devanagari, Russian Cyrillic and Chinese-simplified scripts. Public Interest Registry’s applications to create and manage the .NGO|.ONG domains and the new native IDNs were approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in 2013.
pir.org/public-interest-registry-releases-report-demonstrating-extended-growth-of-the-org-domain-in-2013/