Verisign has released the latest volume of “The Domain Name Industry Brief,” a quarterly report of the domain name industry. What did it find?

• There are currently 192 million domain registrations across all extensions.
• Last quarter saw an 8% increase in registrations overall.
• .Uk experienced the most growth. It jumped a solid 11%.
• Overall, domains have a renewal rate of 71%.
• Of all resolving names, 24% point to a one-page site. The majority of these are likely parked pages.

Source | Domain Name News

Continue reading: Verisign publishes domain industry report

A popular domain auction site recently released a report detailing statistics about more than 9,000 auctions in the last three months. Surprisingly, the average sale price for a .net domain came out to $1,775 USD, a wee bit higher than the average .com value of $1,768. This is a sharp decline from the $2,527 figure calculated in the last reporting period.

If .com is supposedly king, why are .net domains selling for more? The answer is quite simple: all the good generic .com names are taken. According to the report, 75% of domain sales were .coms– mostly less desirable names, however. Now that the cream of the crop has already been sold, premium .net names are becoming more desirable.

Does this mean .coms are now worth less? Such a statement could be no further from the truth. People are simply buying .nets because there are no good .coms available. Since so few are out there, .coms are now worth more than ever before.

Source | DN Journal

Continue reading: Report: average .net auction price exceeds .com

Part of what has pushed the domain industry to new levels is a drastic increase in the number of small businesses owning websites. With the majority of people in developed nations online, businesses have finally realized the value of the web.

There are still quite a few firms stuck in the stone age, however. According to a recent study, 40% of small businesses have no online presence. At the same time, 80% of the companies surveyed with websites said the Internet was vital to their success.

Over the next decade, most of these businesses will not doubt go online, a sure sign that the domain industry will continue to grow. As more and more companies fight over fewer and fewer premium names, domain values are likely to skyrocket even further. They will also need web hosting, ensuring the future growth of that sector as well.

Continue reading: 40% of small businesses have no website

With the economy at rock-bottom, stock prices have fallen dramatically over the last year. One might expect domains to follow a similar trend, however, the average auction price for a name has increased- from £1,282 last year to £1,757!

This year has also seen quite a few high-price domain sales, such as toys.com for £3.11 million ($5.1 million USD) and candy.com for £1.8 million ($3 million USD). The number of domain sales as well as the prices best resemble the 1999 .com boom.

I don’t know if the rise in prices is a sign of investors turning to the Internet in light of the poor stock market, a realization that the web exists and is actually profitable, or both. As I have stated in the past, I think the rampant speculation that is plaguing the domain market will be its downfall. We will see another .com bubble burst similar to what happened in 2001.

Continue reading: Despite poor economy, domain prices on the rise