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

Georgia is celebrating this week as its .ge ccTLD has reached 8,000 registrations. While a drop in the bucket compared to more popular extensions, the domain has been growing at a steady rate of 12.5%. Furthermore, it is not a lack of demand, but rather strict registration rules that has hampered adoption.

The sale of .ge names is not allowed. Georgia does not want its domains to be used as investments, as this would drive up their price and make them unaffordable to average Georgian. The current fee for registering a .ge name is 30 GEL ($17.51 USD).

Source | The Financial
Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: 8,000th .ge domain registered

A recent report reveals that although $102 million worth of domain sales were reported last year, this revenue has dropped 12.5% from 2008, when $116.7 million worth of sales occurred. What does this mean for the domain industry?

Keep in mind that this number only represents the gross revenue from reported sales, not the actual number of sales. So it’s not possible to tell if the number of sales went down, the average sale price decreased, or both. It’s also possible that sales increased by average price decreased. In addition, the number does not include private sales.

On a side note, revenue from ccTLD sales jumped 28%. The market is definitely headed away from generic extensions to regional names.

Source | DN Journal

Continue reading: Domain sale revenue falls by 12.5%

Afilias, the registry for the .info domain, has released its 2009 report on the TLD. The full document may be viewed at this location, but here’s a quick run-down:

• Out of all the TLDs, .info is the seventh-most popular.
• It makes up 40% of all new TLD registrations.
• There are currently more than 5.3 million registrations.
• The domain is most popular in North America and Europe, where 61% and 23% of its registrations originate respectively.
• Asia is a growing market for .info. Currently, the region owns 11% of its names.

Part of .info’s success is no doubt due to its very low registration fee, which is often as low as $1 USD. As fas as I’m concerned, however, .com is still king.

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Afilias releases annual .info report

Analysis done by blog Domain Name Wire shows that cybersquatting is at an all-time low.

The site took a look at the number of Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) filings for .com domains. It found that despite an increase in the quantity of registrations, the number of disputes filed has decreased from 1 out of every 7,000 .com names in 2000 to 1 in 20,000 in 2008.

Cybersquatting has become less prevalent for a number of reasons. Companies have been more diligent about registering domains containing their trademarks in a timely manner. Increased awareness about cybercrime and its penalties have also made cybersquatting less attractive.

It will be interesting to see what effect the introduction of gTLDs has on cybersquatting. Personally, I expect to see an increase in the number of cases. More extensions will provide more opportunities for trademark infringement.

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Cybersquatting plummits to an all-time low

While economic activity in most industries is stagnant, the domain market continues to show growth. A report recently released by a large domain auction house shows a 15% increase in its sales.

Other auction sites don’t always report their growth, so it’s hard to tell if this increase has occurred across the board. Given that the registration base of most TLDs and ccTLDs is increasing, I think its fair to say that there has been universal growth in sales.

The average name sale price has jumped 37%, too– from £1,031.17 to £1,412. This heavy market growth is the result of increased speculation among investors.

Photo | svilen001

Continue reading: Domain sales up by 15%

News is out that the domain Insure.com has changed hands. The buyer, marketing firm QuinStreet, paid an astounding £10.1 million ($16 million USD). If you discount the fact that the sale also included Insure.com’s corporate name, the sale is the largest ever recorded– beating sex.com by $4 million.

Before the sale, Insure.com was a publicly traded company. The firm itself was not sold, however, and will be renamed to Life Quotes.

The domain originally sold for $1.6 million in 2001. It’s amazing how quickly the domain name market has taken off over the past several years. Given that Insure.com sold for 10 times its 2001 original purchase price, its value more than doubled every year up until now.

Photo | svilen001

Continue reading: Insure.com sells for $16 million in record sale

Despite a sluggish economy, Ireland’s .ie domain is taking off. Compared to last quarter, it has seen a growth of a 15%– 31,862 registrations. IE Domain Registry chief David Curtin stated:

It is encouraging to see continued growth in .ie domain names, demonstrating that Irish businesses are seeing growth opportunities online despite the more challenging economic environment they face.

Most of the new registrations are from sole traders, companies, charities, and other organisations. Ireland’s .ie hasn’t seen as much growth as other ccTLDs in the past because of the strict registration guidelines. However, a 64% decrease in registration price has made the extension much more desirable.

Source | Domain News
Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Strong growth for .IE domain

Dubai is now not only known for its explosive economic growth, but now its domain growth. Compared to last year, the country’s .ae domain extension has seen a 30% increase in registrations.

The cause of the growth is fairly self-explanatory. The ccTLD had for a long time only been available through one registrar, but starting last year, additional companies were allowed to offer the name. Removing the long-standing monopoly not only gave registrants more choice, but also made the name more affordable by encouraging price competition.

Overall, ccTLDs have grown 14% since 2008.

Source | Business 24-7

Continue reading: Dubai's .ae domain grows 30%

A report on advertising spending conducted by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers shows that UK advertisers have spent more money on Internet advertising so far this year than on television adverts.

In all, the web accounts for 23.5% of advertising expenditure, or £1.75 billion. Still a dominant power, TV made up 21.9% of spending.

This is important to domainers because it shows that companies and marketing firms value the Internet just as much as any other communications medium. Thus they are more likely to understand the value of a premium domain. Because of increased advertisement spending, website owners stand to make more from PPC ads.

Source | The Domains

Continue reading: New media advertising report is good news for domainers

Ever visit a domain only to find a page full of ads? Known as domain parking, the placement of PPC (pay-per-click) ads on traffic-rich domain names has always been a popular source of revenue for domainers.

With the modernization of the Internet and the evolution of a much savvier group of users that is less likely to click ads, many domainers have complained about a fall in parking earnings.

Continue reading: Is domain parking a thing of the past?

Summer may be winding down, but any time is a good time to sell a domain. Below are some recent domain auction results for your perusal.

These aren’t six-figure sales by a long shot, but it’s important for a domainer to keep tabs on the entire industry. The average domain price is right around £1000, after all. The results listed are characteristic of most domain sales. For every £1 million .com, there are probably 10,000 no-name domains sold.

• buygoldonline.com- $6,100
• dogobedience.com- $2,950
• hdtvlcd.com- $2,360
• 4n.net- $2,050
• videoportal.com- $2,050
• ontractorjobs.com- $2,050
• okyovacations.com- $1,230
• goodfood.net- $400
• globalsearch.net- $325
• beefbrisket.net- $300
• birdseed.net- $300

Buygoldonline.com might seem high at $6,100, but the price is just representative of the strong bullion market. The only reason why 4n.net sold is because it’s two letters. ICANN currently does not permit the registration of .com or .net names under 3 letters in length.

Source | The Domains

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Domain auction results prove any time is a good time to sell domains