Growth of Internet and Domain Registrations

[Carlton]

Was reading news on GoDaddy (from May '06) and found this to be eye opening. Sorry if it's already posted here at NP. Seems to be of interest to domainers in general ...

In April, GoDaddy.com®, the world's top domain name registrar, accomplished something that has never before happened in the history of the Internet – we registered 1 million domains in a single month. This remarkable statistic stands in direct contrast to the popular opinion that ‘all the good domain names are taken’.

However, that’s not the only evidence pointing to record growth online. According to industry analyst Netcraft, LTD ®, more than 12.8 million Web sites have been added to the Internet in the last five months alone. That is a sharp increase from 7.5 million during the same time last year and puts online growth on track for a record pace. In addition, the current registration rate is five times faster than it was five years ago.

A key part of the Web site registration phenomenon is that many people are discovering that .COM domains are not the only game in town. Other Top-Level Domains (TLDs) such as .ORG, .NET, .INFO and others are becoming more and more common. In fact, a large group of .INFO domains recently helped push Go Daddy's portfolio to more than 20 million total domain names.

Two things that come to mind are if the stats are perhaps artificially high due to domain tasting ... although tasted domains that are returned probably don't get counted as actual registrations. The other thing is my own observation in seeing more and more local .tv and .biz websites. This would support the GoDaddy statement that the general public is discovering there are other domains besides .com. Kind of interesting to contemplate how robust the aftermarket will be in a year for: us/info/mobi/biz/tv, IDN's too.

 

[Jo]

Thanks for sharing. I can see how Godaddy's registrations have boomed, since they are the only registrar that I know about who has actual TV ads. And then broadcasting during the superbowl was a fantastic idea as the viewing audience is huge.

As for the other extensions picking up, I think that's great news!