Domain name growth

By Clare Lawrence
Posted Sunday, August 15, 2004

Domain name growth is starting to recover, but we are a long way from the rapid growth we saw in 1998 –2000.

I am confident that the market for domain names will move back into a growth phase in the next two or three years time, its true that the dot com boom was a “bubble”, but we are now seeing a maturing in the market with more businesses recognising the value of the web as an additional sales channel.

Domain names sales have been weighted towards the North American and European markets, but I predict that sales of domains outside this market will be the driver in the longer term, particularly as Eastern Europe and the far eastern markets recover. India and China are certain to grow strongly in the not too distant future.

The introduction of the new .eu the domain name for the European Union will also be very interesting, as this is likely to give the European domain market a boost.

Domain name registration services such as our own, offering both good value and helpful service will benefit the most. Customers don’t want to over pay for their domain name , they are however prepared to pay for support and recognise that a reasonable fee means the registrar is likely to be around in 5 years time.

Selling domain names and web hosting is rewarding, particularly when your helping the smaller business customer who are often less familiar with the process.

If your looking for help and advice - get in touch. We would be delighted to help you add your domain to the following table!

The following shows the number of .com registered growth against time

Date .com

March 16 – 2003 22,626,562
February 17, 2003 22,452,747
January 12, 2003 22,147,502
December 15, 2002 21,991,795
November 17, 2002 21,773,883
October 13, 2002 21,524,698
September 15, 2002 21,358,016
August 11, 2003 21,273,992
July 15, 2002 21,270,830
June 16, 2002 21,243,232
May 12, 2002 21,382,537
April 14, 2002 21,581,810
March 17, 2002 22,284,362
February 17, 2002 22,299,727
January 13, 2002 22,746,754
December 11, 2001 23,198,677
November 12, 2001 23,171,002
October 4, 2001 23,291,654
September 24, 2001 23,280,339
July, 14, 2001 22,845,079
June 12, 2001 22,702,074
June 6, 2001 22,670,915
May 31, 2001 22,624,608
May 24, 2001 22,606,495
May 16, 2001 22,496,480
May 9, 2001 22,470,923
May 2, 2001 22,475,976
April 25, 2001 22,409,745
April 18, 2001 22,366,367
March 29, 2001 22,186,938
March 22, 2001 22,160,178
March 15, 2001 22,123,487
March 7, 2001 22,045,648
February 23, 2001 21,915,624
February 15, 2001 21,756,189
February 8, 2001 21,592,167
February 1, 2001 21,439,059
January 30, 2001 21,387,603
January 18, 2001 21,185,015
January 9, 2001 21,023,720
December 22, 2000 20,652,200
December 12, 2000 20,401,837
November 27, 2000 20,033,920
July 2000 14,680,275
January 2000 8,006,100
July 1999 5,748,100
January 1999 3,425,625
July 1998 1,879,501

Earlier data is combined .com..org ,.net and .edu

January 1998 2,292,000
July 1997 1,301,000
January 1997 828,000
July 1996 488,000
January 1996 240,000
July 1995 120,000
January 1995 71,000
July 1994 46,000
January 1994 30,000
July 1993 26,000
January 1993 21,000
July 1992 16,000

Data Source: Zooknic (http://www.zooknic.com/)

If you need help with your domain name purchase, give us a call

About the Author
Clare Lawrence is CEO of Discount Domains Ltd – A leading UK provider of domain names and web hosting services. Please feel free to re-publish this article provided this reference box remains together with a hyperlink to (http://www.discountdomainsuk.com) Clare can also be contacted on clare@discountdomainsuk.com.