Total new gTLD registrations have been on a downhill slide since late September 2020 according to nTLDstats.com and the decline is continuing. Verisign’s authorative Domain Name Industry Brief released this week reports that in the final quarter of 2020, new gTLD domain name registrations dropped 4.2 million to 26.0 million which equates to a drop of 13.8% compared to the third quarter of 2020. Over the year new gTLDs decreased by 3.3 million or 11.2%.
Verisign reported its fourth quarter and 2020 financial results Thursday and the highlight that will get most attention is the increase in the annual registry-level wholesale fee for each new and renewal .com domain name, which will increase by 7%, from $7.85 to $8.39, effective 1 September, 2021.
The third quarter of 2020 closed with 370.7 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains (TLDs), an increase of 0.6 million registrations, or 0.2 percent, for the quarter, according to Verisign’s latest Domain Name Industry Brief released this week. This compares to growth of 0.9 percent for the second and 1.2 percent for the first quarter of 2020. Over the 12 months to the end of September, registrations have grown by 10.8 million, or 3.0 percent.
The second quarter of 2020 saw global domain name registrations continue to rise, with an increase of 3.3 million, or 0.9%. This took total registrations around the world to 370.1 million as the global COVID-19 pandemic continued to wreak havoc.
Neustar (.us), Public Interest Registry (.org) and Verisign (.com/.net) are participating in a four month trial with the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Food and Drug Administration to curb illegal online sales of unapproved opioids.
The number of domain names registered around the world grew by 4.5 million in the first quarter of 2020, taking the total to 366.8 million, an increase of 1.2%. The increase was led by an increase in new gTLD registrations of 3.0 million or 10.3%, taking their total to 32.3 million according to Verisign’s latest Domain Name Industry Brief.
Continue reading Global Domain Registrations Grow 4.5 Million Led By New gTLDs In Q1: Verisign
Verisign announced last week they are extending the registry fee waiver, the one-time wholesale restore fee charged to restore to active status of a domain name registration which has been deleted by a registrar, for all their top-level domains including .com and .net, until 1 August.
Facebookâs announcement of their new Libra cryptocurrency in mid-June had a big impact on .com and .net domain name registrations with âlibraâ topping the top 10 trending keywords in English registered in June for both top-level domains.
âCurrencyâ also made it into the .com top 10 while gambling-related keywords had an impact on .net keywords with âcasinoâ, âbetâ and âpokerâ.
For May âcouponsâ and âcouponâ topped the .com top 10.
The top 10 trending keywords for .com and .net registered in June 2019 were:
| .COM | .NET |
| Libra | Libra |
| Snafu | Casino |
| Psychedelic | Bet |
| Currency | Long |
| Ceramic | Asera |
| Employer | Clinic |
| Pottery | Poker |
| Impact | Boat |
| Regenerative | London |
| Manual | Dust |
The top 10 trending keywords for .com and .net registered in May 2019 were:
| .COM | .NET |
| coupons | abuse |
| coupon | apple |
| finest | child |
| biochar | phone |
| mushroom | account |
| trial | boy |
| shroom | pain |
| pods | thai |
| bring | lend |
| simplicity | weed |
Domain name registrations continue to grow around the world, growing by 18.0 million or 5.4% in the year to the end of March 2019 and 3.1 million or 0.9% for the quarter, taking total domain name registrations to 351.8 million across all top-level domains, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief from Verisign released Thursday.
For an alternative view of how domain name registrations globally are faring, see the latest CENTRstats Global TLD Report released in mid-May, which shows there was an estimated 351 million domain names around the world, but also that growth among the 1,484 top-level domains around the world has dropped to a record low of 3.4%.
The .com and .net TLDs had a combined total of 154.8 million domain name registrations at the end of the first quarter of 2019 according to Verisign’s Domain Name Industry Brief, an increase of 1.8 million domain name registrations, or 1.2%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2018. The .com and .net TLDs had a combined increase of 6.5 million domain name registrations, or 4.4%, year over year. As of 31 March, .com domain names totalled 141.0 million registrations, while .net totalled 13.8 million. For .net, this continues its ongoing decline from 14.4 million at the end of March 2018 and 15.2 million the year before that.
Total country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registrations were 156.8 million at the end of the first quarter of 2019, an increase of 2.5 million domain name registrations, or 1.6%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2018. ccTLDs increased by 10.5 million registrations, or 7.2%, year over year.
Without including .tk, the second largest ccTLD, ccTLD domain name registrations increased 1.4 million in the first quarter of 2019, or 1.1%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2018. ccTLDs, excluding .tk, increased by 7.8 million domain name registrations, or 6.2%, year over year.
The top 10 ccTLDs as of 31 March were .cn (China), .tk (Tokelau), .de (Germany), .uk (United Kingdom), .tw (Taiwan), .nl (Netherlands), .ru (Russian Federation), .br (Brazil), .eu (European Union), and .fr (France). There were 304 global ccTLD extensions delegated in the root zone, including Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs), with the top 10 ccTLDs composing 65.2% of all ccTLD registrations.
For new gTLDs, registrations totalled 23.0 million at the end of the first quarter of 2019, a decrease of 0.8 million domain name registrations, or 3.4%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2018. New gTLDs increased by 2.8 million domain name registrations, or 13.8%, year over year. The top 10 new gTLDs represented 52.9% of all new gTLD domain name registrations. The following chart shows new gTLD domain name registrations as a percentage of overall TLD domain name registrations, of which they represent 6.5%, as well as the top 10 new gTLDs as a percentage of all new gTLD domain name registrations for the first quarter of 2019.
New .com and .net, TLDs of which Verisign provides registry services for, domain name registrations totalled 9.8 million at the end of the first quarter of 2019, compared to 9.6 million at the end of the first quarter of 2018.
There were 6 keywords that related to drug addiction and rehabilitation on Verisignâs top 10 list of trending keywords for .com in April: rehab, drug, centers, alcohol, treatment and addiction. But not one of these keywords made it to the .net list.
With more than 300 million domain names registered globally, Verisign note there are numerous examples of trending keywords reflected by domain name registrations. In the past there has been a correlation between domain name registrations and newsworthy and popular events, as well as anticipated trends.
This monthâs list of the top 10 trending .com and .net keywords registered in English during April are below: