analysis GTLDs, ccTLDs, and ngTLDs: What Were the Trends in July 2021?

[domain_names]

What did domain registration trends look like last month? To answer this question, we examined domain registration behaviors in 1–31 July 2021, and below are some key findings:

• Our dataset shows that a total of 7,326,431 domain names were registered across all TLDs in July
• 52% of the newly registered domains analyzed use gTLDs
• 47% of the domains registered in July fall under the .com gTLD space
• GoDaddy.com, LLC is the top registrar.

We discussed these findings in greater detail in the next sections.

Half of Domain Registrations Fall under Original gTLDs
In July, gTLDs were the most used TLD type, accounting for 52% of the total domain name registration volume in our dataset. ccTLDs followed with 32% and new gTLDs with 16%.

The gTLD space posted a significant lead since only eight TLDs belong to this group. These are .com, .net, .org, .edu, .gov, .int, .mil, and .arpa. On the other hand, there are more than 1,000 new gTLDs and over 300 ccTLDs.

That goes to show that most people still prefer the original TLDs, at least for July 2021. It would be interesting to see if such a trend will continue for the rest of the year.

.com Takes a Significant Lead
A majority of the domains (47%) use the .com gTLD, and the rest are distributed across all the others. After .com, .tk had the most number of domain registrations, but only accounted for 6% of the total. It was closely followed by .ga (5%), .de (4%), .xyz (3%), .net (3%), .org (2%), .uk (2%), .gq (2%), and .co (1%). You can see the top 10 TLDs in the chart below.

The Registrar with the Largest Share
Around 15% of the domains were registered by GoDaddy.com, LLC, while the rest belonged to dozens of other registrars. That comes as no surprise since GoDaddy is possibly the largest domain registrar in the world.

The other registrars in the top 10 were NameCheap (7%), Google (3%), NameSilo (3%), Key-Systems-GmbH (3%), Tucows Domains Inc. (2%), GMO Internet Inc. (2%), Dynadot (2%), PDR Ltd. (1%), and Alibaba- Beijing (1%).

If we include other Alibaba subsidiaries, such as Alibaba.com Singapore and Alibaba Ltd., the registrar would take the ninth spot, accounting for about 2% of the domain registrations.

What Newly Registered Domains Looked Like in July
A look at newly registered domains for July 2021 revealed thousands of cases that contained seemingly random combinations of alphanumeric characters. The .com space, for instance, had several domains that looked like these:

• 00578aa[.]com
• 00578b[.]com
• 00578cms[.]com
• 00578ii[.]com
• 0123lp[.]com
• 160076[.]com
• 0168cc[.]com
• zxzwzzzsjm[.]com
• zzxqx[.]com
• zzxyjym[.]com

Furthermore, among the most repeated words that appeared in the sample size were “app,” “online,” “art,” “apple,” “ai,” “group,” “API,” “alpha,” “shop,” and “ax.” The word cloud shows these text strings and more:

Overall, our analysis for July 2021 tells us that ccTLDs and major gTLDs were the most preferred TLD types. New gTLDs continue to lag behind despite having the most number of TLDs. Also, .com remains the most popular gTLD, while .tk took the top spot in the ccTLD space.

Disclaimer: The stats analyzed above were gathered from WhoisXML API’s newly registered domains & WHOIS database download feed files.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

The gTLD space posted a significant lead since only eight TLDs belong to this group. These are .com, .net, .org, .edu, .gov, .int, .mil, and .arpa.

How about .info/.biz (2001), .PRO (2004) etc. gTLDs???

And all nTLDs today are just another wave of gTLDs, 7 years elapsed already.

 

[Grego85]

Not THAT long ago, that chart would have looked like Pac-Man.. Things ARE changing