Over 180 Million Internet Domain Names Registered
There are now 183 million domain names registered across all Top Level Domains (TLDs) which represents a three percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2008 and a twelve percent increase over the same quarter last year. This means that nearly 11.8 million new domain names were registered across all TLDs in the first quarter of 2009. While this reflects a 17 percent growth in new registrations over the fourth quarter of 2008, it is a 17 percent decline from the same quarter in the previous year. While domain names registered do not necessarily mean the equivalent number of Websites created, the numbers point to approximately 91 domain names registered per minute and if about 88 percent resolve to Websites, that would mean that roughly 80 new sites were created a minute or one a second.
Country Code Top Level Domain Names (ccTLDs) registered increased to 74.1 million, an 18 percent increase year over year and a four percent increase quarter over quarter. There were nearly three million ccTLDs added in the first quarter of 2009, representing a 38 percent growth over the previous quarter, but a 39 percent decline from the same quarter of 2008.
In terms of total registrations, .com continues to have the highest base followed by .cn (China), .de (Germany) and .net. Following these are .org, .uk, .info, .nl (Netherlands), .eu (European Union), and .biz.
View the entire report (pdf).
