New VeriSign report shows domain registration growth is up. Or is it?
They say there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. The truth is you can focus on particular numbers to change the impression.
That’s the case with VeriSign’s new June Domain Name Industry Brief (pdf).
I could have headlined this article “Domain Registrations Up 17%”. But I also could have titled it “Domain Registrations Decline 17%”. It all depends on the baseline.
VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) says there were 11.8 million new domain names registered in Q1 2009. That’s a 17% increase over Q4 of 2008, but a 17% decline from the same quarter last year. The first quarter has seasonably proven to be a good quarter for domain name registrations.
One thing that can’t be disputed is that the overall base of .com and .net domain name registrations is growing. It grew to 92.4 million domains in Q1 2009, a two percent increase over last quarter and a nine percent increase over Q1 2008. Renewal rates also remain strong at 71%, although down slightly from previous years. VeriSign reports a record 183 million domain names are registered across all TLDs and ccTLDs.
Rob Sequin says
“VeriSign reports a record 183 million domain names are registered across all TLDs and ccTLDs”
That’s it?
Someday everyone will have at least one domain name. I’m not saying all six billion people will have a domain but I see no reason why there won’t be one billion domains registered at some point, maybe within ten years?
Everyone should at least have their name .com then others should have a hobby domain while other will have their business domain.
David J Castello says
Unless I’m missing something, there’s a lot more in this report I’d like to see. For example, what is the exact number of registrations and site development percentages for all of these individual TLDs? The best info here is about dotCom and dotNet, and it is indeed impressive (their re-registration and site development percentages are excellent), but I’d like to see that same info for the ccTLDs and other TLDs.
Andrew Allemann says
@ David – they do include some of that data, but their access to it is limited. Since they run .com/.net they have a lot more data.
Johnny says
Wait until this summer ends and then let them run the numbers.
I think registrations are going to fall substantially and drops will be enormous…..especially most of the alternative extensions.
One day I think domainers and others will look back and say, “Wow…..were we dumb to buy so many alternatives to .com”.
Domain Investor says
I totally agree with Johnny.
New registrations are instantaneous.
A renewal only comes around once a year.
Maybe, a couple years depending how long they were initially renewed.
I’m sure many (casual*) domain owners, med and large companies and domainers are questioning if some domains should be renewed. I know I dropped a number of marginal domains.
* kids, families, small or part-time businesses.
I wonder if we have hit the peak of .com registrations? We won’t know for a couple years.
Just like many us did not know that we were at the peak of the Dow at 14,000.
(today is is around 8,600)
Snoopy says
“Wait until this summer ends and then let them run the numbers.
I think registrations are going to fall substantially and drops will be enormous…..especially most of the alternative extensions.”
There is likely to be a lag of 1-2 years. This time last year things were okish with the economy and the larger drops will likely come in the next 6-12 months. Having said that it is probably wishful thinking to predict registration totals will fall substantially. During the .com bust they fell about 10% and that was a much worse time for the Internet than now. Personally I wouldn’t be suprised if there was no fall at all for the bigger extensions.
Andrew Allemann says
I’m not sure if a major lag time for renewals makes sense. The way I look at it is the major domain holders will drop names if the earnings are low enough and the “pain” high enough at the point the domain is set to expire.
bernard says
180M domains and at least 50% owned by domainers.
As happy domainer located in Miami or Las Vegas, what do you think of a real estate market where 50% of the units are vacant and owned by home flippers?
Will domainers find enough small businesses for all these domains. Will the Smith grocery store in NYC pay significant more for nycGroceryStore.com than the nearly zero cost of registering nycSmithGroceryStore.com?