Internet Has Grown to 342.4 Million Domain Name Registrations in Q3 of 2018: Verisign

BW Online Bureau Dec 13, 2018

VeriSign Inc., a global leader in domain names and Internet security, notifies that approximately 2.6 million domain name registrations were added to the internet in the Q3 of 2018, bringing the total number of domain name registrations to approximately 342.4 million across all top-level domains (TLDs).

The increase of approximately 2.6 million domain name registrations globally equates to a growth rate of 0.8 percent compared to the Q2 of 2018.1,2 The Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB) further brings out that the domain name registrations have grown by approximately 11.7 million, or 3.5 percent, Y-O-Y.

Some key highlights:
* The .com and .net TLDs had a combined total of approximately 151.7 million domain name registrations in the domain name base3 at the end of Q3 2018. This represents an increase of approximately 2.0 million domain name registrations, or 1.3 percent, compared to Q2 2018.

* As of September 30, 2018, the .com domain name base totaled approximately 137.6 million domain name registrations, while the .net domain name base totaled approximately 14.1 million domain name registrations.

* The .com and .net TLDs had a combined increase of approximately 5.9 million domain name registrations, or 4.0 percent, Y-O-Y.

* New .com and .net domain name registrations totaled approximately 9.5 million at the end of Q3 2018, compared to 8.9 million domain name registrations for Q3 2017.

* Growth of .com and .net domain names redirecting to popular global social media and e-commerce sites compared to Q3 2017 is dominated by Pinterest (50 percent) followed by Instagram (47 percent) and Etsy, Snapchat, Linkedin and Amazon in the following.

* Total new gTLD (ngTLD) domain name registrations were approximately 23.4 million at the end of Q3 2018, with an increase of 1.6 million domain name registrations, or 7.5 percent, compared to Q2 2018. ngTLDs decreased by approximately 2.3 million domain name registrations, or 10.9 percent, Y-O-Y.