Verisign’s Domain Name Industry Brief, which is released quarterly, is one of the best ways to understand what’s happening in the domain industry and which trends are emerging. While the full brief is available for download here, we’ve jotted down a few of the highlights.
The total number of domains increased quarter-over-quarter
The number of domains increased by 1.3 million domains compared to Q1, bringing the total number of registered TLDs to 331.9 million. Unsurprisingly, .COM remains by far the most popular extension on the internet with 129.2 million reported domain names. However, .CN—a ccTLD for China—came in the number two spot, with 21.4 million reported domain names, beating the likes of .NET and .ORG as well as other popular ccTLDs like .DE and .UK. China remains one of the fastest growing markets in the world, and the domain industry is taking notice. As more nTLDs start becoming available in China, it’ll be interesting to see if .CN will continue to enjoy such a high registration rate.
New trends around domain redirects
Another interesting trend highlighted in the brief was the steady uptick of domains being used as redirects to social media channels. The report shows a 71% increase in .COM and .NET domains being used as a redirect to Instagram, and a 28% increase for YouTube. With so many companies now championing the importance of having a memorable way to direct your audience to your social media channels, these statistics prove that people are getting (and understand) the message.
Continued emergence of New Domains
The number of nTLDs registered reached 24.3 million as of June 2017, making up 7.3% of total domain registrations. Among the New Domains with the most registrations were .XYZ, .TOP, .LOAN, and .CLUB.
The report also breaks down the adoption of New Domains that are geo-restricted to select cities (ngTLDs), similar to ccTLDs. As of the end of Q2 2017, there were 592,079 ngTLDs registered, which makes up just 0.9% of all ccTLDs that are currently registered. Some of the most popular ngTLDs include .NYC, .TOKYO, .LONDON, and .BERLIN.
To get the full rundown on the state of the domain industry, download Verisign’s Q2 2017 Domain Name Industry Brief.
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