The landscape of domain name registrations has dramatically changed since ICANN released hundreds of new gTLD’s as General Availability just over one year ago. Over the last 12 months, approximately 4.25 million domain names have been registered under the umbrella of new gTLD’s. Much speculation in the past anticipated that the new gTLD program would be wholly unsuccessful. From the perspective of many sceptics, .com , .net and .org were and still are, too firmly imprinted in the mindset of internet users. Statistics show however, that these sceptics are being proven wrong.
With the increased introduction of new gTLD’s, the frequency of registrations for long established TLD’s particularly .net, has been gradually decreasing. The following statistics provide noteworthy insights into the changing landscape in domain name registrations.
According to Verisign, by the end of 2013, .net had approximately 15.2 domain names registered. As of March 2015, this figure declined 14.9 million. A similar trend has been reported by the .info TLD. By the end of 2013, .info had recorded 8.1million registrations which drastically diminished to 5.4 million by 2015. Similarly, .biz saw a substantial decrease in domain name registrations from 3.2 million in December 2013 to 1.75 million in 2015.
The figures suggest that we are beginning to see changes in the nature of domain name registration preferences. The statistics also suggest that TLD’s are no longer top dog when it comes to registering new domain names. Will .com soon follow suit? Only time will tell.
These statistics do not conclusively confirm that the era of TLD dominance is over. However they do raise some interesting questions. What is the driving force behind such developments? dotNice conclude that the psychology of search is slowly changing with the advent of the new gTLD program. Additionally, there is a heightened awareness amongst senior marketing executives and brand managers of the marketing potential inherent in investing in domain name portfolios.
If you’re an SMB in development stage It would be recommended to consult with specialists in with domain name portfolio management expertise. Choosing suitable domain name extensions and strategising which domain names will prove most profitable to your business, surely should be considered a smart and competent investment.
dotNice – Experts in Digital Brand Protection Strategy
For more information email: brandprotection-emea@dotnice.com
