2015-11-10

New gTLDs Growth Rate Declining, dot COM Registrations Increasing

Source of above: CENTR (Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries) 
Above data and charts from CENTR publication Domain Wire 2015, 3rd Quarter: 
"Despite the size of the .com zone, it is still growing on average at a higher rate than its peers."--CENTR's DomainWire Global TLD Stat Report 2015/3rd Quarter (pdf) (emphasis added).
"The active zone as of 11/04/2015 contains 120,416,517 .com domain names ..." 
"The active zone as of 11/09/2015 contains 121,126,545 .com domain names ..."
(source: Verisign.com)
710,028 net additions to .COM active zone in just 5 days!--source: Zone Files For Top-Level Domains (TLDs) - Verisign--and as of November 9, 2015, there are a total of 122,034,536 dot COM domain names in the "Domain Name Base"--"The domain name base is the active zone plus the number of domain names that are registered but not configured for use in the respective Top-Level Domain zone file plus the number of domain names that are in a client or server hold status." (source: Verisign.com).

At this rate, it will take only 9 weeks for the dot COM net adds to exceed the cumulative grand total registrations of all new gTLDs combined, as pathetically trumpeted by ICANN's Global Domains Division President:
(BTW, is Akram getting paid by ICANN or the new gTLDs' Lobbyists to be chief PR flack for the new gTLD registry operators?)

About CENTR: CENTR is the association of European country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registries, such as .de for Germany or .si for Slovenia. CENTR currently counts 52 full and 9 associate members – together, they are responsible for over 80% of all registered country code domain names worldwide. The objectives of CENTR are to promote and participate in the development of high standards and best practices among ccTLD registries. (source: centr.org)
Note: Domain Mondo's new CENTR page contains links and twitter feed of  CENTR: Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries

GLOSSARY OF TERMS used by CENTR:
ccTLD – a Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) is a top level domain used and reserved for a country or dependent territory. Examples include .uk for the United Kingdom or .de for Germany. Each country appoints a manager of its ccTLD and sets the rules for allocating domains. 
gTLD – a Generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) is a top level domain that is open to registrants worldwide in contrast to a Country Code Top Level Domain that are often restricted to registrants located in a particular country. The more popular gTLDs are .com, .org and .net 
ccTLD IDN – an IDN is a domain name that includes characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet (a-z). An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. A ccTLD IDN is an IDN at the top level – eg., the ccTLD IDN for the Russian Federation is .PФ which is the Cyrillic script version of .RF (Russian Federation). 
sTLD – a Sponsored Top Level Domain (sTLD) is another form of a gTLD overseen by ICANN. An example of a sTLD is .cat for the Catalonia region. 
Registrant – The individual or organisation that registers a specific domain name. They hold the right to use that domain name for a specified period of time (often one year however multi-year registrations are increasingly popular). 
Registry – An internet domain name registry receives domain name information into a centralised database and transmits the information in internet zone files on the internet so that domain names can be found by users around the world via the worldwide web and email. (source: centr.org)

Caveat Emptor!



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