Afilias releases .INFO stats

AdoptableDomains · 09-27-2004, 07:58 AM

Pretty interesting. I think they stretch the truth about 71% being active by including those on parking pages. Interesting to see the percentages from North America vs. Europe.

I wonder if the free .info registrations recently was to pump up the stats for the 3rd anniversary...

Quote:

Afilias Announces 3 Year Analysis of the .INFO Domain; On .INFO's Three-Year Anniversary, the Domain Has Surpassed 1,500,000 Registrations

DUBLIN, Ireland - 27 September 2004 ---(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 27, 2004--Afilias, a global provider of domain name registry services, today released a three year analysis of the .INFO domain in preparation for the third anniversary of live, real-time registrations on October 1. The domain, which is the most popular of the new TLDs that were launched in 2001, now has over 1,500,000 registrations, 71% of which are active sites, and over 460,000 dedicated INFO sites.

"This report illustrates .INFO's evolution from a "new" domain to the sixth largest domain on the Internet," said Roland LaPlante, Afilias' Chief Marketing Officer. ".INFO's intuitive appeal, supported by Afilias' reliable and fast technology, has fueled not just excellent registration volume, but also site usage comparable to .com and a burgeoning use by registrants in their advertising and marketing."

Highlights of the analysis report available at http://www.afilias.info/news/press_r...ysisSCREEN.pdf include:

-- .INFO total registrations passed the 1,500,000 mark in September 2004.

-- .INFO's quarter to quarter growth continues to outpace the industry's average of 2.5% and the year to year growth 7% (1)

-- Europe remains the leading .INFO region, representing 54% of total registrations versus North America's 38%. Further, Europe now accounts for nearly 70% of the dedicated .INFO sites in use.

-- Over 70% of .INFOs are now active on the Internet, similar to .com(2). .INFO is now used for over 460,000 dedicated Web sites representing a broad cross section of businesses, organizations, causes, and individuals (a representative list can be found at http://www.afilias.info/about_info/great_sites)

-- .INFO IDNs have been successful. Since the launch of German script Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) in March 2004, over 18,000 IDNs have been registered. The average number of names per registrant was 3.8 domains, about twice the average of the INFO portfolio.

-- Over 60% of those registering IDN names were brand new customers to the .INFO domain, illustrating that the introduction of IDNs presents gTLDs with the opportunity to attract new business to the domain.

-- .INFO enjoys a strong market penetration as registrars which sell .INFO domains represent 97% of the current domain market(1). .INFOs are now available nearly everyplace domains are sold.

Interestingly, companies such as the Franziskaner brewery in Germany have begun adopting .INFO in their advertising and marketing strategies. "Overall, we felt that a .info TLD was the ideal type of address to serve as an international entry point into our Web offering," said Volkmar Goebel, brand manager for Spaten and Franziskaner with the Munich-based Spaten-Lowenbrau Group.

Other companies such as SAP have taken the opportunity to use a .INFO address to compliment their brand name. The company, located in Walldorf, Germany, has been issuing their "SAP INFO" customer magazine to provide relevant company information packaged in a journalistic format in German and English for more than ten years. SAP recently migrated their SAPinfo.net URL, which was not well received by their readers, to SAP.INFO, which now records some 8,000 visits a day and about 2.5 million a month.

In addition, the world's largest web hosting company by number of active sites, 1&1 Internet, will change to a .INFO domain with their German language hosting portal. "A .INFO address is much more international than the .DE address we used before, so it will play an important role in our international expansion," says Andreas Gauger, CEO of 1&1 Internet AG. "Using the .INFO address will reduce our costs significantly, because we can address customers in Germany and Austria with the same marketing campaign. The positive image of the .INFO domain perfectly corresponds with our innovative and competitive web hosting products." With some 40 % market share 1&1 is by far market leader in Germany.

.INFO's three year anniversary marks a milestone in the expansion of the Internet name space. .INFO has proven to be the most successful of the seven new TLDs due to it's large registration base, and high usage numbers, which closely mirror those of .com which has had more then 10 years to mature it's brand and market position. Furthermore, the introduction of IDNs within the TLD suggest that these new products may attract new customers, expanding the market for .INFO domains deeper into non-English speaking parts of the world.

About Afilias

Afilias, a fully integrated global provider of domain name registry services, maintains international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, sales offices in London, England and Dusseldorf, Germany, sales and operational facilities in Toronto, and administrative offices in the U.S. near Philadelphia, PA. Afilias provides a full range of registry services leveraging proven technology that is fast, reliable and secure. Afilias was formed in September of 2000 and was the first new gTLD operator selected by ICANN in November of 2000 to launch a new registry system using a thick registry model based on the new EPP (extensible provisioning protocol) standard.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/industry-news/49356-afilias-releases-info-stats.html

For more information please visit www.afilias.info

(1) VeriSign Domain Name Industry Brief - Volume 1, Issue 3 - September 2004 http://www.verisign.com/static/015909.pdf

(2) According to September 2004 data available at www.webhosting.info

Anthony · 10-05-2004, 10:05 AM

The free info promotion was probably to correspond with .info's third anniversary, just so they could say .info is "the most popular of the new TLDs that were launched in 2001". Surprising that .info beat .museum and .aero, isn't it?

AdoptableDomains · 10-12-2004, 07:51 PM

I guess they should have waited about 3-4 days on this announcement since they picked up almost a million since it was released. Leads me to believe they had no idea enom/sipence was going to blast them with registrations.

Darkfire001 · 10-12-2004, 07:55 PM

This whole .info sitation continues to get more and more curious.

AdoptableDomains · 10-12-2004, 08:25 PM

Originally Posted by Anthony

Surprising that .info beat .museum and .aero, isn't it?

Big difference, since those two are sponsored rather than global TLD's. If every museum in the world changed to .museum from their former .org/com/gov or ccTLD's it probably wouldn't make 6 figures. The .aero domain is pretty exclusive as well, and I'd venture a guess I'm one of very few on this board to have a few. Also, neither of these can be sold or transferred on the market, making speculation except on a development basis a null issue. They're pretty expensive as well.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=49356

I thought from the beginning info would be good with the only thing against it being 4 the 4 letter 1st level instead of the traditional 3 letter.

Raf · 10-12-2004, 08:45 PM

Thanks for sharing the news with us AdoptableDomains, greatly appreciated.

1rrr1 · 10-12-2004, 09:07 PM

that 71% active thing was rubbish lol

ichibaka · 10-13-2004, 12:52 AM

hmm now that I think about it, I feel sorry for those who have registered .info domains before the free promotion began. Man I can just imagine them raging over it when they read the news.

10-12-2004, 07:51 PM	THREAD STARTER #3 (permalink)
AdoptableDomains Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: SW Ohio Posts: 4,027	I guess they should have waited about 3-4 days on this announcement since they picked up almost a million since it was released. Leads me to believe they had no idea enom/sipence was going to blast them with registrations. __________________ AdoptableDomains.com ~~~~~Finding Good Homes for Good Names~~~~~ FuelPrices.mobi - Fish.us - ManhattanNewYork.net - Salesmen.info - SoundSystems.org Dickering.com - JobPlacement.biz - LotteryTickets.ws - Deleted.cc - Names.im - MP3.hn

10-12-2004, 07:55 PM	#4 (permalink)
Darkfire001 Senior Member Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 2,123	This whole .info sitation continues to get more and more curious. __________________ Reichelt Solutions

10-12-2004, 09:07 PM	#7 (permalink)
1rrr1 NamePros Expert Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 6,240	that 71% active thing was rubbish lol __________________ Drop Catching Services - Click here for more info Especially effective for .co, .in and .co.in domains. I also offer drop lists for these extensions.

10-05-2004, 10:05 AM	#2 (permalink)
Anthony NamePros Expert Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: NYC Posts: 9,134	The free info promotion was probably to correspond with .info's third anniversary, just so they could say .info is "the most popular of the new TLDs that were launched in 2001". Surprising that .info beat .museum and .aero, isn't it?

10-12-2004, 08:45 PM	#6 (permalink)
Raf Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 1,746	Thanks for sharing the news with us AdoptableDomains, greatly appreciated.

10-13-2004, 12:52 AM	#8 (permalink)
ichibaka NamePros Regular Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 245	hmm now that I think about it, I feel sorry for those who have registered .info domains before the free promotion began. Man I can just imagine them raging over it when they read the news.

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