Verisign has released the Domain Industry Brief for the Third quarter of 2022. The report is aimed at giving an overall view of the domain name industry and the health of different Top-Level Domains (TLDs).
Third Quarter 2022
The number of net domains in 2022 stood at 349.9 million domain names. This is a net fall of 1.6 million domain names. The net number of domain names in the previous quarter stood at 351.5 million domain names.
Net number of domains had shown much progress in the previous quarter. An increase of 1 million domains was marked in the Second Quarter of 2022. However, with the dip in this Quarter, the progress of the previous quarter has been leveled. It has fallen behind the First Quarter figures of 350.5 million domain names.
TLDs
The Domain Industry Brief is a holistic report that focuses on growth of different TLDs as well. Among TLDs, ccTLDs are perhaps the most interesting and more dynamic field.
gTLD like .com still hold the sway, however the growth is faltering in 2022. There were 160.9 million .com domain names in Third Quarter 2022. This is a fall of 0.2 million as compared to the previous Quarter.
The number of .com domain names have been falling since the First Quarter of 2022. From 161.3 .com domain names in the First Quarter, it has come down at the present level.
The dip is extremely small and not very significant for the health of the most popular TLD. However, it does indicate that the market of .com domain names has been saturated.
Other popular TLDs in this Quarter were .cn (18.0M), .de (17.3 million), .net (13.2 million), .uk (11.1 million), .org (10.6 million), .nl (6.3 million), .ru (5.7 million), .br (5.0 million) and .xyz (4.2 million).
Among other TLDs, .cn domains have fallen drastically in this quarter. .cn domain names fell by 2.6 million domain names! Can this change be related to the recent strife with Washington?
ccTLDs
As indicated earlier, ccTLDs are perhaps the most exciting section of the global domain market. While most other spheres of domain name industry have been plain and stagnant, ccTLDs provide ample scope for innovation and creativity.
Globalization has taken a hit and Nationalism is on the rise. More and more countries are becoming self centric. Global scenarios like the Covid Pandemic, US China trade war, Russia Ukraine Conflict, Climate Change and its deep Economic consequences have pushed nations to take a more defensive stance against Globalization.
Amid this, the domain name industry has a unique chance of adaptability and tapping into untapped markets. gTLD has been at the forefront of domain name branding, however it is time we switch our focus to ccTLDs.
As a nation, and then subsequently its people and businesses start getting protective, ccTLD branding can be appropriately utilized. The global scenario for ccTLD in this quarter was marked by a major dip in .cn domains name.
Another notable change in ccTLD list was the jump in .au domain names. Australian extension jumped from 9th position to the 7th position in the most popular ccTLD list. It has moved past ahead .fr and .eu. 0.4 million domain names were added in .au this Quarter. This has been marked after the extension was launched for the general public in September.
The most popular ccTLDs are .cn (18.0 million), .de (17.3 million), uk (11.1 million), .nl (6.3 million), .ru (5.7 million), .br (5.0 million), .au (4.0 million), .fr (4.0 million), .eu (3.7 million) and .it (3.5 million).
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