So VeriSign released its Q4 2008 Domain Name Industry Brief (PDF) yesterday, a document that zooms in on “the state of the domain name industry through a variety of statistical and analytical research”. Let’s take a look at their findings and stats.
As you could have deducted from the headline, last year ended with a total base of 177 million domain name registrations across all of the Top Level Domains (TLDs), up from 153 million at the end of 2007 representing a 16% growth rate. Over the entire year, there was an average of 11.9 million new domain names registered per quarter compared to an average of 12.2 million new domain names registered each quarter in 2007.
Last quarter, like Q3 2008, the five largest TLDs in terms of overall size were .com, .cn (China), .de (Germany), .net, and .org. The overall base of .com and .net domain names grew to 90.4 million domain names at the end of 2008.
But growth is slowing, likely because of the bad economy (although this apparently didn’t stop VeriSign from raising its prices) and a falling interest and revenue potential for parked domains.
More than 10.1 million new domain names were registered across all of the TLDs in the last quarter of 2008. This reflects a slower growth in new registrations with a decline of 12 percent from the third quarter 2008 and 17 percent from the same quarter in the previous year. The decline was driven by slower growth in both gTLDs and ccTLDs. Over the entire year, there was an average of 11.9 million new domain names registered per quarter compared to an average of 12.2 million new domain names registered each quarter in 2007.
Last year ended with 71.1 million ccTLD (country code Top Level Domains) registrations, a 22 percent increase over the end of 2007. In total, there are more than 240 ccTLD extensions globally, but the top 10 ccTLDs contribute 65 percent of the total number of registrations. Unsurprisingly, .ru (Russian Federation) and .cn (China) were the fastest growing. But overall, the growth of ccTLDs is also slowing down: only 36 percent of the top 25 largest ccTLDs experienced growth rates in the fourth quarter that were higher than the growth rates in the third quarter.
To conclude, an interesting tidbit: VeriSign estimates that 88 percent of .com and .net domain names resolve to a website. Broken down, nearly a quarter of the 90 million .com and .net domain names the company analyzed lead to one-page websites, which include include under-construction, brochure-ware and parked pages in addition to online advertising revenue generating parked pages. 12 percent doesn’t resolve at all.
> 88 percent…resolve to a website
I wonder what proportion of that 88 percent represents holding pages etc. I suspect it’s a significant amount.
Doh! The answer’s kind of in the article. Serves me write for skim reading.
Most of the people, they just register the domain and don’t use it. Yesterday, I was talking to a friend who had 28 domains registered and didn’t know what to do with them.
Just 28? I own more than a hundred and don’t know what to do with them. Maybe weed out my portfolio a bit.
Yeah, my GoDaddy account is packed with quite a few domains I registered last year. I’m not even sure what I ever planned to do with them now
Makes me feel better – I only have 3 that I don’t know what to do with
It leaves you wondering what people do with their numerous domains…
Talking about domains Bido.com re-launch is today, worth checking.
It’s amazing there are so many one-page websites. I guess techmeme and drudgereport are having some effect online.
raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
i have about 10 registered domains and i forgot what they are called
i think the useful ones will only be about 4 millions or less
I suspect the actual industry numbers have grown as far as $ spent towards the purchase of a domain. More and more people are forced to drop extra money on squatters or get stuck with a less attractive domain.
i dont have a domain but have lots of blogs in free cms platforms.
One would expect the volume of new registrations to slow. There are only so many combinations of alphanumeric characters that make sense, after all.
Then again, I’ve been hearing that since 2001
This is what I was thinking… how long before all that’s left for domains is stuff like ‘zex3wu9i’?
I also wonder if those analytics take into consideration the purchase of domains that people have let expire?
I think there are many domains with garbage contains. Mostly for optimizing google adsense income.
Domain auction companies like SEDO have been slow as well. At times both Moniker and Sedo sales formats have been trying desperate attempts to formulate affordable ways to push inventory, an example no reserve auctions. .
i’ve got over 200 domains not to count the foolish political domains that i purchased last year. i’m trying to find a web developer who will work for free or bug one of my friends until they agree.
I don’t see any significant different in the growth of the internet domains.
However, I predict a positive growth, because more people have no job and may open an home business, using the site as a marketing basic.
of the 80 million coms, less than a million are truly anygood. after 10 years at the table we feel our portfolio is the greatest strategic “natural language location” engine portfolio ever created. if anybody feels they have or has seen something better please share a link. same goes for all you drive-by haters.
there are cybersquatters and there are “cybersleuths.”
NaturalLocator.com – niche yourself
off topic. no one cares.
I wrote an article few months back which explained why people wanted to have their websites search engine optimized. I gave the chart of the registered names. It shows the growth of domain registration that people got crazy to just get a website no matter their website looks good or bad.
OUTSTANDING RESEARCH
I guess a lot of domains are used today as personal web pages. With a lot of job seekers and a lot of potential employers who ‘google’ individuals prior to hiring, the are a lot of people who strive to represent themselves professionally online, and buy a domain focused around their names.
The are a few services which offer users a web page with a personal domain. I would like to recommend LookupPage, where you get you own personal domain (www.yourname.com), sponsored listing on Google, advanced visitor monitoring, and much more.
One main reason for lesser domains being booked is due to the non-availability of good names. If people can get more creative in naming, there are still names available!
Interest and the purchase of domain names continues to climb. The company I’m affiliated with still enjoys year-over-year growth since it also offers a unique business opportunity.
It appears the company is growing quite well in China and India is picking up according to what I see on the leader boards.
The market is still tremendous especially with a low cost opportunity driving interest. No slowing down here….
TopGDIPro
The real growth seems to be coming from ccTLDs rather than the traditional Com/Net/Org. Will be very interesting to see the domain stats for 2009…
Perfect post for a great Breast Blog. ,