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registration
trends. The new brief reports that total domain
registrations across all extensions jumped 16% in
2008 over the previous year to a total of 177 million.
Country code registrations rose even faster, soaring
22% from 2007 to a total of 71.1 million. On
the downside, and no surprise given the nosedive that
the general economy took in 4Q-2008, the growth rate
slowed considerably in the final quarter of 2008. The
number of total 4Q registrations was down 12%
from the previous quarter. |
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The
continuing rise of ccTLDs has been one of the
major registration trends over the past 12 months (a
trend that we also see in our tracking of the domain
aftermarket where the country codes have
come on strong in recent months). The three biggest
ccTLDs in terms of total registrations, in order, are
.cn (China), .de (Germany) and .uk (Great
Britain).
China had
the fastest growth among that trio, up 51% in
2008 over the previous year. The more mature German .de
extension grew 7% and .uk rose 13%. Even
though there are more than 240 country code
extensions, the big three (.cn, .de and .uk) accounted
for 47% of all ccTLD registrations. As the
year closed the fastest growing ccTLD was Russia's .ru,
up 11% in 4Q-2008 from the previous quarter.
China's .cn was next with an 8% quarter over
quarter growth rate. The new domain brief also has an
interesting section on the evolution of IDNs that
those interested in that promising category will want to
pay special attention to.
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Australian domainer
Michael
Gilmour, who writes WhizzbangsBlog.com,
has forwarded $2,950.79, donated by individuals
and company representatives from across the
domain community, to a relief fund to help
victims of the wildfires that have devastated
his home state of Victoria. Michael's
local church set up a fund that was designed to
speed 100% of donations to those who have had
their lives upended by the fires that have been
reported around the globe - many lost everything
they owned.
Michael put out a
request for help from the domain community and I
was one of the parties he asked to monitor his
PayPal account to verify that every donation
sent to him was forwarded to the Bayside
Church relief fund. It was encouraging (but
given what I know about people in our business -
not surprising) to see dozens of domainers pitch
in to help those affected by the disaster. |
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One other note
today - Rob Grant, who was featured in
our April
2008 Cover Story, will be the
special guest on DomainSuccess.com's
latest episode of their Gratitude
series tonight. The free
live webinar will run from 8pm -
9pm (U.S. Eastern time). Rob is one of the
most experience players in the industry and will
have a wealth of information to share. |
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