Subscribe to RSSGlobal Domain Name Registrations Grow 1.7% in Q4 2010 To 205m: VeriSign
The total number of domain names registered grew by 1.7 per cent in the quarter ending December 2010, or 3.5 million, to 205.3 million according to the latest VeriSign Domain Name Industry Brief. Registrations grew by 12.1 million, or 6.3 per cent over the past year.
The base of Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) was 80.1 million domain names, a 1.1 per cent increase quarter over quarter, and a 0.3 per cent increase year over year, according to the report.
The .COM and .NET TLDs experienced strong aggregate growth in the fourth quarter, reaching a combined total of approximately 105.2 million names. New .COM and .NET registrations totalled 7.6 million during the quarter. As usual, VeriSign does not break out numbers for .COM and .NET, but eyeballing graphs provided indicated that .COM registrations are around 93 million.
This is a 1.6 per cent increase in new registrations from the third quarter. Year over year, new registrations increased 4 per cent.
The order of the top TLDs in terms of zone size changed only slightly compared to the third quarter, as .ORG moved from fifth to fourth largest TLD, dropping .UK (United Kingdom) from fourth to fifth.
The largest TLDs in terms of base size were, in order, .COM, .DE (Germany), .NET, .ORG, .UK, .INFO, .CN (China), .NL (Netherlands), .EU (European Union) and .RU (Russian Federation).
Total ccTLD registrations increased by 0.9 million domain names, or a 1.1 per cent increase compared to the third quarter. This is an increase of approximately 0.3 million domain names, or 0.3 percent from a year ago.
Among the 20 largest ccTLDs, Poland (.PL), Australia (.AU), Canada (.CA) and Switzerland (.CH) exceeded 4 per cent quarter over quarter growth. Last quarter, four of the top 20 met the same threshold.
Poland and Australia also joined the Russian Federation (.RU) and the United States (.US) as top 20 ccTLDs exceeding 20 per cent year-over-year growth.
There are more than 240 ccTLD extensions globally, with the top 10 ccTLDs comprising 61 per cent of all registrations.
The .COM/.NET renewal rate for the fourth quarter was 72.7 per cent, down from 72.8 per cent for the third quarter. Renewal rates may deviate a few percentage points in either direction quarter over quarter based on the composition of the expiring name base and the contribution of specific registrars.
VeriSign’s Domain Name Industry Brief is available to download from:
www.verisigninc.com/assets/domain-name-report-feb-2011.pdf
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