When it comes down to absolute numbers, .com is king.
With more than 91 million registrations, dot com – one of the three original TLDs along with .net and .org – is ruling the domain registration waves.
The .com TLD increased its numbers by more than 7 million domains, or roughly 8.5% during 2010.
While most generic TLDs increased their caches as well, there is one TLD that recorded a huge drop since the beginning of the year.
Not all TLDs gained in 2010 - there is one big loser.
No, that TLD is surprisingly NOT .tel 😀 Let me repeat that: dot tel is not the big loser of 2010 in terms of numbers.
But allow me to extend the anticipation a little longer for you.
Of all the generic TLDs, .info recorded the biggest growth this year, with a staggering 28.4% increase since January. This is due to a number of promotions, practically giving away .info domains for as little as $1.99 – making .info the TLD of choice for cheap spamming.
Other details:
- .net gained 7%
- .org increased its numbers by 9.7%
- .biz crawled up by 1.95%
- .mobi inched up by 2.64%
- .tel gained 3.6%
- .eu received a 5.34% increase
- .me – a ccTLD often used as a novelty TLD – gained a hefty 22%
And who was the biggest loser of 2010?
That title goes to .asia – the only regional geoTLD in existence besides .eu 🙂
Losing 36,000 registrations that represent 16% of its numbers, dot .asia is unfortunately in the deep red for 2010.
…the only geoTLD in existence … with .eu (Europe) and all ccTLDs 🙂
Francois – you are right, I forgot .eu represents a region as well 😀
C’est ma faute.
Interesting, thanks for sharing.
Wouldn’t .cat be a regional TLD as well?
Nom de domaine – In theory, it is but technically, it isn’t; it’s a cultural and linguistic TLD with many restrictions.
Thanks for sharing the numbers, who doesn’t enjoy some name related stats with their morning coffee? Where’s the legend for random pie graph? 😀
Interesting that .mobi just lost 2.64%
Richard – If we had to invest in pie-graphics generating software we’d have to charge for the news 😀
Liror – The figures above are all positive, .mobi gained 2.64% – the only TLD that lost from the ones listed is .asia
glad to see not a single .co has been dropped 😀
Kandyjet – Dot .co is not a year old yet. The comparison only includes TLDs that existed in January 2010.
…and .cn dropped half its registration base – some 6 million domain names.
Interesting post…I figured it would have been .tel also but .asia sounds about right. Well I just wanted to comment on your post about .info being registered just for spamming. I think that is quite wrong and I have seen way more .info domains developed then quite a few other extensions. I just think you are being rather closed minded on .info domains and pigeon holing them into spam sites. Now to be completely honest I’m a .info investor so I guess you could say I took it to heart.
Anyhow I enjoy the site and I try to read quite a few of the articles and such…I enjoy the flare you post with and most of the time I agree…”minus the .info=spam comment”
Cheers
Blake A. Worthington
Blake – Unfortunately, the low promotional pricing of .info has given spammers and junk mailers a cheap tool for their practices. This is not a guesstimate, it’s based on the number of such registrations observed (many of which are trademark violations). Obviously, there are plenty of legitimate registrations of .info
Very useful article today. I like both the 100% articles and the humorous (0% ?) ones.
Thanks