Up or Down?: Domain Name Registration Growth
Fresh VeriSign note shows domain registration growth is up. Or is it?
They say there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. The truth is you can focus on particular numbers to change the impression.
That’s the case with VeriSign’s fresh June Domain Name Industry Brief (pdf).
I could have headlined this article “Domain Registrations Up 17%”. But I also could have titled it “Domain Registrations Decline 17%”. It all depends on the baseline.
VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) states there were 11.8 million fresh domain names registered in Q1 2009. That’s a 17% increase over Q4 of 2008, but a 17% decline from the same quarter last year. The first quarter has seasonably proven to be a good quarter for domain name registrations.
One thing that can’t be disputed is that the overall base of .com and .net domain name registrations is growing. It grew to 92.4 million domains in Q1 2009, a two percent increase over last quarter and a nine percent increase over Q1 2008. Renewal rates also remain strong at 71%, although down slightly from previous years. VeriSign notes a record 183 million domain names are registered across all TLDs and ccTLDs.
