Three percent of domain names registered in new gTLDs contain business websites, Verisign has found after analysing the common usage of websites using new gTLD domain names.This compared to a similar study by EURid for eight established gTLDs that found that 30.5 percent of domain names contained business websites on a slightly tighter definition.The Verisign analysis published a couple of weeks ago “also found the most common use of domain names in the new gTLD space is Pay-Per-Click (PPC), with roughly 41 percent of all new gTLD domain names serving up PPC websites. A PPC website contains little user-generated content and almost exclusively advertising links.”Verisign noted that “the prevalence of PPC websites in the new gTLD space can likely be attributed to:

• heightened speculation in the new gTLD space
• the practice of several new gTLD registries to register their own domains which are still technically available at premium retail pricing, and several campaigns that provide domains from the new gTLDs at little or no cost to end users (some reportedly without their prior consent), and at least one campaign which automatically creates PPC websites on those provided domain names.”

In their conclusion, Verisign note that “while it is still early days for new gTLDs, this analysis offers an interesting snapshot of the first few months of new gTLD general availability. It will be interesting to see how website usage evolves over the next year as more gTLDs become available for registration.”To read the full blog posting from Verisign on their analysis, see:
blogs.verisigninc.com/blog/entry/website_usage_analysis_in_the