Verisign (who operates the .com and .net registries) has released latest quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief, a report that is always loaded with interesting information about globaldomain registrations and trends. The new report covers the second quarter of 2011 which closed with more than 215 million domains registered worldwide. That is an increase of 5.2 million from the number registered at the close of the previous quarter. It is a 2.5% quarter over quarter rise and a very healthy 8.6% jump over the same quarter a year ago (16.9 milliion domains have been added globally since the close of 2Q-2010). 

Obviously that is a much faster growth rate 

than the general economy, another indicator that most of you reading this are in the right line of work. The ten most popular TLDs (in terms of total registrations) include four gTLDs and six ccTLDs:

The only change in the order was .CN (China) moving up one slot to become the world's eighth largest TLD, and .EU (European Union) dropping one slot to become ninth largest. 

Taken together, .Com and .Net added 8.1 million registrations to finish 2Q-2011 with 110 million. That is 8.3% better than last year and a 1.8% move up from the previous quarter. Country-code TLDs (ccTLDs) added a total of 2.9 million names in the second quarter. That is an 8.4% rise from one year ago and a 3.6% jump from the previous quarter.  

The latest issue of the Domain Name Industry Brief also contains an update on ICANN's controversial  plan to roll out an unlimited number of new gTLDs. The Brief discusses what that means for potential applicants, brand owners, domain name registrants and ordinary Internet users worldwide.

(Posted Sept. 1, 2011)