Entries tagged with “statistics” from Domains / Internet Technology News - DNS News
2010 is the year that .com celebrates 25 years, but it's also the year the .uk marks a quarter of a century.
Over 25 years the .uk namespace has grown and grown to become one of the most widely used addresses on the internet outside of .com
The growth pattern is quite interesting.
During the first 11 years only 26 thousand domains were registered. One million names were in the zone by February 2000, which then grew to 5 million by 2006.
There are currently over 8.5 million .uk domains!
If you're a fan of statistics you can see the latest numbers from the registry here
Over 25 years the .uk namespace has grown and grown to become one of the most widely used addresses on the internet outside of .com
The growth pattern is quite interesting.
During the first 11 years only 26 thousand domains were registered. One million names were in the zone by February 2000, which then grew to 5 million by 2006.
There are currently over 8.5 million .uk domains!
If you're a fan of statistics you can see the latest numbers from the registry here
DNS.be, the registry operator for the .be namespace, has released figures on .be usage.
According to the report, which was released earlier today, there are over 600 thousand websites using .be. In real terms this means that roughly 7 out of 10 .be domains is actively being used for websites. Of course, as the report points out, just because a .be doesn't direct to a website does not mean that is not being used for email or other services.
Some more figures:
"43% of all websites consists of just one page, while 27% have more than one page.
- 14% of domain names direct visitors to another domain name.
- Only 16% of domain names have no website. Which does not mean they are not being used, because you can also create your own e-mail addresses when you have a domain name.
- On average, each homepage at a Belgian website features 13 links.
- 57% feature JavaScript, used mainly for interactive applications in a website
- 56% have CSS, which streamlines the layout of all the pages of a website
- 11% use Flash to display animations and web-videos
- 27% feature keywords that indicate search engines what the website is about
"
It would be interesting to see if the single page sites were merely placeholders or parked, but the press release does not go into that much detail.
In any case, it's always interesting to see what people are actually doing with domains.
More information is available on the registry's site.
According to the report, which was released earlier today, there are over 600 thousand websites using .be. In real terms this means that roughly 7 out of 10 .be domains is actively being used for websites. Of course, as the report points out, just because a .be doesn't direct to a website does not mean that is not being used for email or other services.
Some more figures:
"43% of all websites consists of just one page, while 27% have more than one page.
- 14% of domain names direct visitors to another domain name.
- Only 16% of domain names have no website. Which does not mean they are not being used, because you can also create your own e-mail addresses when you have a domain name.
- On average, each homepage at a Belgian website features 13 links.
- 57% feature JavaScript, used mainly for interactive applications in a website
- 56% have CSS, which streamlines the layout of all the pages of a website
- 11% use Flash to display animations and web-videos
- 27% feature keywords that indicate search engines what the website is about
"
It would be interesting to see if the single page sites were merely placeholders or parked, but the press release does not go into that much detail.
In any case, it's always interesting to see what people are actually doing with domains.
More information is available on the registry's site.
The IEDR, the body that is responsible for .ie domains (Ireland), is currently consulting with its resellers about introducing a greater level of transparency.
At the moment there is very little transparency with respect to the sales rank of the various companies that offer .ie domain registration services. The IEDR's own newsletter refers to the companies by letter!
If the new system is implemented then we would finally be able to confirm who actually is handling the volumes and who is just "spinning" ...
While it's impossible to say what the outcome of the consultation will be there have already been some negative comments mentioning "commercial sensitivity"!
Considering that most other registries provide the information either directly or indirectly you'd have to wonder what people were so worried about.
Disclosure: I run one of the largest IE resellers and am in favour of publishing the names.
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At the moment there is very little transparency with respect to the sales rank of the various companies that offer .ie domain registration services. The IEDR's own newsletter refers to the companies by letter!
If the new system is implemented then we would finally be able to confirm who actually is handling the volumes and who is just "spinning" ...
While it's impossible to say what the outcome of the consultation will be there have already been some negative comments mentioning "commercial sensitivity"!
Considering that most other registries provide the information either directly or indirectly you'd have to wonder what people were so worried about.
Disclosure: I run one of the largest IE resellers and am in favour of publishing the names.
DNS.be, who run the Belgian (.be) registry have announced their figures and report for 2008.Unlike some registries that focus purely on number, the Belgian registry has done some analysis on the type of registrant.
Some of the results are not surprising.
Most .be domains are registered to Belgians (over 70%).
69% are registered by Flemings, so does that mean that the Walloons are registering .com or .fr instead?
The number of .be domains registered by private individuals continues to grow, with them now accounting for 28% of the total
16 registrars are responsible for more than 50% of registrations (this would appear to be a common trend in ccTLDs)
The registry also reported that there was a growth of 16.7% in the namespace overall.
You can read the full release on their site
The IEDR has obviously released some form of press release in the last few days to put a spin on its latest figures. Of course the press release isn't on the registry's website nor has it been sent to stakeholders yet again, though I was able to get my hands on a copy of it via a 3rd party.
So what are they trying to sell us today?
The price that the IEDR is referring to is the wholesale price NOT the retail price. The retail price is set by the registrars not the registry and for the registry to make these kind of comments about pricing is inappropriate. Other registry operators would not make comments about their registrars pricing policies, so why should the IEDR?
To claim that the price has fallen is misleading, as the fall in price / cost will only have affected the registrars not the registrants. For the registry to make allusions to pricing in this manner suggests that they are in some way influencing the retail pricing
Why must they insist on referring to themselves as "the managed registry" without ever explaining what they are managing?
Only 2.5% of IE domains are used by non-business users according to their statistics, but there is no explanation of why this is the case. There's no comparison between Ireland and other countries in this regard either.
If you were to compare IE registrations with FR registrations, for example, I somehow doubt that IE would come out looking so well. Unlike Ireland the French registry doesn't put silly barriers in the way of legitimate registrations.
The public won't understand or care what a "reseller" is in this context.
The introduction of multi-year registrations is a positive move, but the lack of multiyear renewals seriously hampers its effectiveness and causes headaches.
If the IEDR actually cared about their resellers they would actually communicate with them, but they obviously don't.
The reseller community drives registrations and basically keeps the IEDR and its staff in jobs, yet the IEDR do not care enough about the registrars / resellers to even bother sharing press releases with them - we have to find out from a 3rd party.
And of course nowhere in the press release is there any mention of Comreg, the extended registry downtime over the past few weeks or any of their inane proposals, such as the policy board that would not have any registrar representation.
So what are they trying to sell us today?
The IE Domain Registry (IEDR) today reported a 23% jump in the net number of .ie websites registered in Ireland in Q3 compared to the same period last year.There are two serious issues with that section of their statement.
The growing number of companies and sole traders moving their business operations online and choosing to do so with a .ie website is one of the main reasons for the rise, in addition to five consecutive years of price reductions by the IEDR, which has made it more affordable for businesses to do so. The cost of registering a .ie domain has fallen by over 60% since 2003.
The price that the IEDR is referring to is the wholesale price NOT the retail price. The retail price is set by the registrars not the registry and for the registry to make these kind of comments about pricing is inappropriate. Other registry operators would not make comments about their registrars pricing policies, so why should the IEDR?
To claim that the price has fallen is misleading, as the fall in price / cost will only have affected the registrars not the registrants. For the registry to make allusions to pricing in this manner suggests that they are in some way influencing the retail pricing
If the figures are official why aren't they published openly on the IEDR's site?
The latest figures from the IEDR, the managed registry for Ireland's official internet address .ie, show that new registrations were up by almost a fifth with 8,197 .ie websites registered in the period July to September 2008.
Why must they insist on referring to themselves as "the managed registry" without ever explaining what they are managing?
Based on what criteria exactly? Claiming that Ireland is "on a par" with other countries is fine, but can they actually cite any real figures to support that claim?
Registrations rose by 20.3% representing a substantial increase on figures from the same period last year, when 6,813 .ie website registrations were recorded. The increase also means the total number of .ie websites registered in Ireland now exceeds 110,000, just four months after the 100,000th barrier was broken earlier in May this year.
Of the .ie websites registered in Q3 83.3% of those were registered by corporate bodies and sole traders while personal domains blogs and other non-commercial websites, accounted for 2.5% of the registrations, placing Ireland on a par with the level of uptake recorded for other country code top level domains.
Only 2.5% of IE domains are used by non-business users according to their statistics, but there is no explanation of why this is the case. There's no comparison between Ireland and other countries in this regard either.
If you were to compare IE registrations with FR registrations, for example, I somehow doubt that IE would come out looking so well. Unlike Ireland the French registry doesn't put silly barriers in the way of legitimate registrations.
For the first time this quarter the IEDR has also made multiyear registrations available to resellers for a period of 2 - 10 years, thus enabling .ie resellers to register and secure a .ie domain for several years at a time. The IEDR plans to extend this service by Q1 by offering resellers the option of multiyear renewals.Wouldn't publishing data related to this change have been a bit more newsworthy?
The public won't understand or care what a "reseller" is in this context.
The introduction of multi-year registrations is a positive move, but the lack of multiyear renewals seriously hampers its effectiveness and causes headaches.
Commenting on the 20% rise in .ie registrations, Mr. David Curtin, Chief Executive of IE Domain Registry, said; "This has been another very strong quarter for the IEDR and one we expect to see continue into Q4, when it is predicted that the number of .ie domains registered will exceed the 115,000 mark by year end. Our reseller community, in particular, has been instrumental in driving registrations again this year and as broadband rollout and download speeds continue to improve, we expect to see more companies and SMEs, in particular, availing of .ie as a secure local online environment in which to do business".Curtin should get an award of some kind for fluffy meaningless statements.
If the IEDR actually cared about their resellers they would actually communicate with them, but they obviously don't.
The reseller community drives registrations and basically keeps the IEDR and its staff in jobs, yet the IEDR do not care enough about the registrars / resellers to even bother sharing press releases with them - we have to find out from a 3rd party.
And of course nowhere in the press release is there any mention of Comreg, the extended registry downtime over the past few weeks or any of their inane proposals, such as the policy board that would not have any registrar representation.
John McCormac has been collecting and processing statistics on domain registrations and hosting for as long as I can remember. He is probably best known for Hackwatch and WhoisIreland, which produces monthly reports for the Irish hosting and domain industry.
John's latest project has been in development for several months and offers an alternative to some of the existing domain statistics sites already on the market.
What makes it different is that HosterStats cares about ccTLD data.
Sites like WebHosting.info and DomainTools all but ignore ccTLD data and give a rather skewed perspective of non-US based providers.
With Hosterstats you can easily check the DNS history on any .com/.net/org/info/mobi/eu/asia/co.uk or .ie domain name.
While the site isn't the prettiest at present it is incredibly functional and nice and fast to load, so you get the information that you want quickly and easily.
It will be interesting to see what John plans on adding in terms of features in the coming weeks and months.
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John's latest project has been in development for several months and offers an alternative to some of the existing domain statistics sites already on the market.
What makes it different is that HosterStats cares about ccTLD data.
Sites like WebHosting.info and DomainTools all but ignore ccTLD data and give a rather skewed perspective of non-US based providers.
With Hosterstats you can easily check the DNS history on any .com/.net/org/info/mobi/eu/asia/co.uk or .ie domain name.
While the site isn't the prettiest at present it is incredibly functional and nice and fast to load, so you get the information that you want quickly and easily.
It will be interesting to see what John plans on adding in terms of features in the coming weeks and months.
While it's been less than a month since the introduction of multi-year registrations in the IE namespace, initial figures show that 6
% of new registrations since then have been for two years or more.
% of new registrations since then have been for two years or more.
The UK registry has now hit the seven million names registered.
You may recall them hitting six million names in July of last year, which means (obviously) that they've added over one million names in just over a year.
tootsdrivingschool.co.uk was the 7 millionth domain.
More on this story on the Nominet site
You may recall them hitting six million names in July of last year, which means (obviously) that they've added over one million names in just over a year.
tootsdrivingschool.co.uk was the 7 millionth domain.
More on this story on the Nominet site
Frank mentions that the Dutch registry (SIDN) has reached the 3 million names mark.
The IEDR's annual report for 2007 has been published (
IEDRAnnualReport2007.pdf )
Of course they didn't bother telling any of their stakeholders that it had been released, but we're more or less used to their lack of communication at this stage, as they prefer to tell the media!
In any case with the current Comreg public consultation ongoing the report was bound to make at least a passing reference to the regulatory changes.
The introductory section did not disappoint:
It then continues:
Other parts of the report deal with the company's retained profits. Similar to Nominet and other ccTLD registries the IE Domain Registry does not have any financial issues.
It's unfortunate that the bulk of the annual report was drafted prior to the recent ICANN meeting, as it would have been interesting to see what kind of comment they'd have made on the new TLDs.
When it comes down to the actual figures involved there are few surprises, though how the figures are framed is questionable at times. The reliance on webhosting.info's statistics, for example, is quite disappointing. The assumptions about registrant density are also quite odd, as only a portion of a ccTLD's registrants would actually reside in that country. This is of particular importance if you wish to examine the registrant makeup in *.uk for example, which has a very open registration policy. It would have been a lot more interesting to see a report similar to that produced by AFNIC last year.
The cost of IE domains to resellers has been dropping, but sales figures and turnover has been increasing.
Of course the report doesn't make it clear that not all resellers will pass on savings to users, so certain assumptions and gaps in the report may lead readers to get a slightly different persective.
The introduction of "personal" IE domains gave a boost to registration figures for 2007. That's hardly surprising really.
But what about the antiquated and ambiguous policies that the registry still enforces?
The IEDR's David Curtin is a stalwart defender of some of their views, which seem to be at odds to those of other ccTLD managers.
For example the lack of a formal aftermarket in IE domains would be seen as quite negative by many industry observers, whereas Curtin seems to view this in a positive, yet incredibly naive and misinformed light:
One of the "unique selling points" of the IE namespace is its supposedly higher level of security:
Update: Now linking to a local copy of the IEDR's report as the link on their site seems to have been removed
IEDRAnnualReport2007.pdf )
Of course they didn't bother telling any of their stakeholders that it had been released, but we're more or less used to their lack of communication at this stage, as they prefer to tell the media!
In any case with the current Comreg public consultation ongoing the report was bound to make at least a passing reference to the regulatory changes.
The introductory section did not disappoint:
As a result of the Communications Regulation (Amendment) Act 2007, regulation of the .ie namespace passes from the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to ComReg, which is empowered, subject to consultation with the relevant Ministers and the approval of the Oireachtas, to issue regulations over a range of operational and other matters in relation to .ie.
It then continues:
Our international competitors, .com and .eu etc., are not subject to the Act or to ComReg regulation. So we have a concern, which we expect ComReg would share, that the impact of regulation should not militate against the continued growth and development of .ie.They conveniently ignore that .eu is answerable to the European Union, which is a lot more onerous than any national body.
Other parts of the report deal with the company's retained profits. Similar to Nominet and other ccTLD registries the IE Domain Registry does not have any financial issues.
It's unfortunate that the bulk of the annual report was drafted prior to the recent ICANN meeting, as it would have been interesting to see what kind of comment they'd have made on the new TLDs.
When it comes down to the actual figures involved there are few surprises, though how the figures are framed is questionable at times. The reliance on webhosting.info's statistics, for example, is quite disappointing. The assumptions about registrant density are also quite odd, as only a portion of a ccTLD's registrants would actually reside in that country. This is of particular importance if you wish to examine the registrant makeup in *.uk for example, which has a very open registration policy. It would have been a lot more interesting to see a report similar to that produced by AFNIC last year.
The cost of IE domains to resellers has been dropping, but sales figures and turnover has been increasing.
Of course the report doesn't make it clear that not all resellers will pass on savings to users, so certain assumptions and gaps in the report may lead readers to get a slightly different persective.
The introduction of "personal" IE domains gave a boost to registration figures for 2007. That's hardly surprising really.
But what about the antiquated and ambiguous policies that the registry still enforces?
The IEDR's David Curtin is a stalwart defender of some of their views, which seem to be at odds to those of other ccTLD managers.
For example the lack of a formal aftermarket in IE domains would be seen as quite negative by many industry observers, whereas Curtin seems to view this in a positive, yet incredibly naive and misinformed light:
...there is no formal secondary market for .ie domains, therefore the problem ofA healthy secondary market does not have to involve "poaching" of domain names and I'm amazed that a man of his intelligence would make such a comment. That's almost like saying that selling property to the highest bidder should be illegal.
poaching of domains and holding them to ransom is not an issue...
One of the "unique selling points" of the IE namespace is its supposedly higher level of security:
Other countries that made different choices regarding the type of ccTLD RegistryIt will be interesting to see if any of the media do more than simply recycle the press release.
are now facing the challenges of costly intellectual property disputes, identity theft, phishing, cybercrime and credit card fraud.
Update: Now linking to a local copy of the IEDR's report as the link on their site seems to have been removed
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The Mexican NIC has announced that they've broken the 250 thousand mark.
In their latest newsletter, which is sent registrants and stakeholders, the Mexican domain registry speaks of how it took 15 years to get the first 100 thousand domains registered, but only 2 and a half years to get the next 100 thousand names.
More details on their site (in Spanish)
In their latest newsletter, which is sent registrants and stakeholders, the Mexican domain registry speaks of how it took 15 years to get the first 100 thousand domains registered, but only 2 and a half years to get the next 100 thousand names.
More details on their site (in Spanish)
In some ways the failure of .eu to capture hearts and minds makes me sad. I'm European. I'd like to think that a European namespace could be a success, but that seems to be a misplaced desire.
As I mentioned some time ago, the only way to grow a namespace or TLD is through usage. Once people start to see a domain extension in "action" then they begin to start using it. If people start using it then everyone benefits - registry, registrars, "normal" registrants and domain investors alike.
When was the last time you saw a high profile .eu site?
You'd have to think long and hard about it, wouldn't you?
Even the "big boys" aren't really using their .eu domains actively.
Google.eu doesn't have any A records ie. it doesn't point anywhere.
Yahoo.eu points to a Yahoo site, but not to the European one!
Ebay.eu actually does what you'd expect it to do, but it was the only one I could find when I did a quick search this evening.
Why do I bring this up?
Last week John McCormack sent me some preliminary statistics on domain usage for the EU namespace and the figures were quite worrying. He's since published a blog piece with a breakdown of the stats and if I were in Eurid I'd be sobbing.
You can read John's article, but the basic underlying truth is hard to avoid.
Adoption of .eu has been pretty bad and that's being diplomatic about it.
While there may be a large number of domains registered only a very small fraction are in active use, with many simply redirecting to a ccTLD equivalent or being parked.
Launching a new TLD is not easy.
Afilias have resorted over the past couple of years to literally giving away domains for free and it looks like Eurid are adopting a similar approach.
DotMobi, however, have worked hard to build up interest in their TLD among users of all shapes and sizes and got the investors interested as well.
What will the future hold for .eu?
Will their PR pay off or will it all fizzle out?
As I mentioned some time ago, the only way to grow a namespace or TLD is through usage. Once people start to see a domain extension in "action" then they begin to start using it. If people start using it then everyone benefits - registry, registrars, "normal" registrants and domain investors alike.
When was the last time you saw a high profile .eu site?
You'd have to think long and hard about it, wouldn't you?
Even the "big boys" aren't really using their .eu domains actively.
Google.eu doesn't have any A records ie. it doesn't point anywhere.
Yahoo.eu points to a Yahoo site, but not to the European one!
Ebay.eu actually does what you'd expect it to do, but it was the only one I could find when I did a quick search this evening.
Why do I bring this up?
Last week John McCormack sent me some preliminary statistics on domain usage for the EU namespace and the figures were quite worrying. He's since published a blog piece with a breakdown of the stats and if I were in Eurid I'd be sobbing.
You can read John's article, but the basic underlying truth is hard to avoid.
Adoption of .eu has been pretty bad and that's being diplomatic about it.
While there may be a large number of domains registered only a very small fraction are in active use, with many simply redirecting to a ccTLD equivalent or being parked.
Launching a new TLD is not easy.
Afilias have resorted over the past couple of years to literally giving away domains for free and it looks like Eurid are adopting a similar approach.
DotMobi, however, have worked hard to build up interest in their TLD among users of all shapes and sizes and got the investors interested as well.
What will the future hold for .eu?
Will their PR pay off or will it all fizzle out?
According to the latest report from Eurid to the EU Commission usage of .eu domains is up based on DNS query volumes.
Seemingly registrants average 2.6 domains each!
The full report is available for download as a PDF
Seemingly registrants average 2.6 domains each!
The full report is available for download as a PDF
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