Verisign publishes domain industry report

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

Columbia to Bring .Co TLD to World

Weekly Video: Are you ready for the .co Revolution? from Domainvestor on Vimeo.

When there was talk nearly a decade ago in 2000 about marketing Columbia’s .co TLD to the world, the state’s government turned the idea down. Many countries have made their domain extensions available in more developed countries as a source of revenue, but Columbia has long refused to do so- until now.

The South American country has just announced it will begin accepting bids from registrars to make their TLD available worldwide. Possible contenders include Verisign, Afilias, and Argus, among others.

No information about cost or date of general availability has been released, but customers will be allowed to preorder names. If multiple preorders are made for the same domain, it will go to auction.

The .co TLD could be quite valuable because its similarity to .com makes it a common typo. No doubt squatters will try to find a way to cash in it.