Reglikedomain industry desk

250 million domain names — Internet tops

250 million domain names — Internet tops

Verisign states milestone reached at end of 2012.

VerisignThere are now more than 250 million domain names registered, as stated by Verisign’s latest Domain Name Industry Brief.

The firm notes that there were 252 million domains registered at the end of 2012. That number grows every day.

But the total universe of paid registrations is less than that. Verisign notes that with .tk, which is mostly free, the year-over-year domain name registration growth rate is 11.8 percent. Take that out and the year-over-year domain name registration growth rate is 8.9 percent.

Verisign may need to add another caveat a year from now as more free ccTLDs hit the market. Freedom Registry, the firm that runs .tk, is now opening up Mali’s .ml country code domain.

Any way you look at it, next year’s note is bound to look a lot different as fresh top level domains come online. Expect overall registration growth rates to increase.

Also on the wire

Other reporting from the domain desk.

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