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| Largest Top-Level Domains on the Internet per Verisign Q4 2014 DNIB (source: verisigninc.com) |
Verisign's latest Domain Name Industry Brief for Q4 2014 reports four million domain names were added to the Internet in the fourth quarter of 2014, bringing the total number of registered domain names to 288 million worldwide across all top-level domains (TLDs) as of Dec. 31, 2014.
Bottom line: despite a new gTLD promoter's prognostication that .COM "flatlines" in 2015, the "gold standard" gTLD .COM continues to grow and dominate the "net adds" for all gTLDs on most days--not only in 2014, but continuing into 2015. Other than .COM, ccTLDs .de, .cn, .uk, .ru, .nl, .tk (free), and gTLDs .net, .org, and.info, complete the top ten largest TLDs.
The increase of four million domain names globally equates to a growth rate of 1.3 percent over the third quarter of 2014. Worldwide registrations have grown by 16.9 million, or 6.2 percent, year over year. The .com and .net TLDs experienced aggregate growth in the fourth quarter of 2014, reaching a combined total of approximately 130.6 million domain names in the domain name base for .com and .net. This represents a 2.7 percent increase year over year. As of Dec. 31, 2014, the base of registered names in .com equaled 115.6 million names, while .net equaled 15.0 million names. New .com and .net registrations totaled 8.2 million during the fourth quarter of 2014. In the fourth quarter of 2013, new .com and .net registrations totaled 8.2 million. Verisign publishes the Domain Name Industry Brief to provide Internet users throughout the world with statistical and analytical research and data on the domain name industry. Copies of the 2014 fourth quarter Domain Name Industry Brief, as well as previous reports, can be obtained at VerisignInc.com/DNIB. (source: VerisignInc.com)
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