Global Domain Name and Internet Policy News
Total domain name registrations around the world dropped 2.8 million in the year to 30 June, or 0.7%, to 367.3 million, according to Verisign’s latest Domain Name Industry Brief. But most noticeable was the crash in new gTLD registrations – a drop of 8.8 million to 22.9 million from 31.6 million, or 27.8% year over year.
Verisign ended the second quarter of 2021 with 170.6 million .com and .net domain name registrations in the domain name base, a 5.2% increase in 12 months, and a net increase of 2.59 million during the second quarter of 2021, according to the company’s second quarter 201 results.
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 |