December 8, 2008 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – VeriSign, Inc. (www.verisign.com), the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world, has released the Domain Name Industry Brief for the third quarter of 2008, highlighting the continued growth of the Internet globally.
The key findings contained in the report include:
-- There were 174 million domain name registrations across all of the Top
Level Domain Names (TLDs) at the end of the third quarter of 2008. This
represents a three percent growth over the second quarter of 2008 and a 19
percent growth over the same quarter last year;
-- The base of Country Code Top Level Domain Names (ccTLDs) totaled 68.9
million domain names, a five percent increase quarter over quarter and a 26
percent increase year over year;
-- Among the top ten largest ccTLDs, there were several changes as .br
(Brazil) climbed up to the eighth position and .au (Australia) joined the
top ten for the first time, displacing .ch (Switzerland);
-- Among the top 25 largest ccTLDs, four (.eu (European Union), .kr
(South Korea), .sp (Spain) and .tv (Tuvalu)) stand-out due to a larger
quarterly growth rate vs. the performance in the second quarter. The
remaining ccTLDs experienced growth rates that were flat or slowing when
compared to their growth rates in second quarter.
The report also reveals some interesting statistics around the popularity of online video and the resulting popularity of the .tv TLD.
"In every country, people associate 'TV' with the kind of entertainment and information that users usually get from television," said Jill McNabb, Vice President, Naming Services, VeriSign. "Web sites with a .tv domain name address provide the ideal destination for an emerging, next-generation Internet experience."
