- Impact
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We studied the domain registration trends for August 2021 by analyzing a data set containing 7,692,950 domain names. These domains were added to the Domain Name System (DNS) on 1–31 August 2021. Here are our key findings:
As usual, we broke down the domains into three TLD types—gTLDs, ngTLDs, and ccTLDs. gTLD refers to the eight original top-level domains (TLDs), namely, .com, .org, .net, .int, .edu, .gov, .mil, and .arpa. The rest of the more than 1,000 gTLDs are classified as “ngTLDs.”
As in July, gTLDs remained the top TLD type in our data set, accounting for 48% of the total number of domains, followed by ccTLDs (35%) and ngTLDs (17%). Both ccTLDs and ngTLDs accounted for slightly higher numbers of domains in August.
.com Remains the Leader
Around 44% of the domains analyzed fell under the .com TLD, while the rest of them were distributed across the other TLDs. This domain registration trend was consistent with that for July, showing that .com remained the most preferred TLD. This preference may also be reflected on sites like sedo[.]com as “top domains” with the highest number of bids were mostly .com domains.
The .tk TLD took the second spot, accounting for 6% of the domain volume, which could be attributed to the fact that registering domains using this ccTLD remains possible for free. The rest of the TLDs in the top 10 remained similar to July, except for the appearance of .ml (2%), which replaced .co. The chart below shows the domain distribution of the top 10 TLDs for August.
Registrar Distribution
GoDaddy remained the top registrar, accounting for 15% of the total domain volume in the data set. It was followed by NameCheap (7%), Alibaba Cloud Computing (5%), GMO Internet, Inc. (4%), NameSilo LLC (3%), Google LLC (3%), Tucows (2%), Dynadot LLC (1%), Hosting Concepts (1%), and PDR Ltd. (1%).
Most of these registrars also appeared in the top 10 in July, except for Hosting Concepts.
What the NRD Volume Looked Like in August
To understand what types of domains were registered in August, we analyzed more than 1.2 million domains or around 16% of the data set. We saw several that looked like randomly generated domains. Some examples are:
Some of these words also appeared in July, namely, “app,” “group,” and “services.” While these can be considered generic terms, the presence of “apple” and “amazon” in both months could hint at a trend. For instance, interest in e-commerce may be increasing, and businesses could be grabbing the opportunity by offering Amazon tutorials or consulting services. These domain names in our data set are in line with this trend:
Despite accounting for more than a thousand TLDs under the ngTLD type, the domain registration volume for this TLD type still lagged behind those recorded for the major gTLDs and ccTLDs. The only ngTLD that made it to the top 10 TLDs in terms of registration volume in August was .xyz.
Disclaimer: The stats provided above were gathered from WhoisXML API’s newly registered domains and WHOIS database download feed files.
- The domain registration volume for the original gTLDs accounted for 48% of the total, slightly down compared to the number in July.
- Around 44% of the domains analyzed used the .com gTLD.
- GoDaddy remained the top registrar, accounting for 15% of the total domain registration volume.
As usual, we broke down the domains into three TLD types—gTLDs, ngTLDs, and ccTLDs. gTLD refers to the eight original top-level domains (TLDs), namely, .com, .org, .net, .int, .edu, .gov, .mil, and .arpa. The rest of the more than 1,000 gTLDs are classified as “ngTLDs.”
As in July, gTLDs remained the top TLD type in our data set, accounting for 48% of the total number of domains, followed by ccTLDs (35%) and ngTLDs (17%). Both ccTLDs and ngTLDs accounted for slightly higher numbers of domains in August.
.com Remains the Leader
Around 44% of the domains analyzed fell under the .com TLD, while the rest of them were distributed across the other TLDs. This domain registration trend was consistent with that for July, showing that .com remained the most preferred TLD. This preference may also be reflected on sites like sedo[.]com as “top domains” with the highest number of bids were mostly .com domains.
The .tk TLD took the second spot, accounting for 6% of the domain volume, which could be attributed to the fact that registering domains using this ccTLD remains possible for free. The rest of the TLDs in the top 10 remained similar to July, except for the appearance of .ml (2%), which replaced .co. The chart below shows the domain distribution of the top 10 TLDs for August.
Registrar Distribution
GoDaddy remained the top registrar, accounting for 15% of the total domain volume in the data set. It was followed by NameCheap (7%), Alibaba Cloud Computing (5%), GMO Internet, Inc. (4%), NameSilo LLC (3%), Google LLC (3%), Tucows (2%), Dynadot LLC (1%), Hosting Concepts (1%), and PDR Ltd. (1%).
Most of these registrars also appeared in the top 10 in July, except for Hosting Concepts.
What the NRD Volume Looked Like in August
To understand what types of domains were registered in August, we analyzed more than 1.2 million domains or around 16% of the data set. We saw several that looked like randomly generated domains. Some examples are:
- 03939ii[.]com
- 039uu[.]com
- 0411dcs[.]com
- 0411gld[.]com
- zzxcdp[.]com
- zzxgdj[.]com
- tt1811[.]com
- tt300w[.]com
- tt3k5n[.]com
- “ad”
- “agency”
- “air”
- “amazon”
- “app”
- “apple”
- “blog”
- “group”
- “service”
- “tech”
Some of these words also appeared in July, namely, “app,” “group,” and “services.” While these can be considered generic terms, the presence of “apple” and “amazon” in both months could hint at a trend. For instance, interest in e-commerce may be increasing, and businesses could be grabbing the opportunity by offering Amazon tutorials or consulting services. These domain names in our data set are in line with this trend:
- amazonindiaconsultant[.]com
- amazonulearn[.]com
- amazonfbaaaccountants[.]com
- amazonearning[.]com
Despite accounting for more than a thousand TLDs under the ngTLD type, the domain registration volume for this TLD type still lagged behind those recorded for the major gTLDs and ccTLDs. The only ngTLD that made it to the top 10 TLDs in terms of registration volume in August was .xyz.
Disclaimer: The stats provided above were gathered from WhoisXML API’s newly registered domains and WHOIS database download feed files.
