Internet Grows to 284 Million Domain Names in the Third Quarter of 2014
New Delhi, India, January 27, 2015: VeriSign, a global leader in domain names and Internet security, today announced four million domain names were added to the Internet in the third quarter of 2014, bringing the total number of registered domain names to 284 million worldwide across all top-level domains (TLDs) as of Sept. 30, 2014, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief.
The increase of four million domain names globally equates to a growth rate of 1.6 percent over the second quarter of 2014. Worldwide registrations have grown by 18.1 million, or 6.8 percent, year over year.
The .com and .net TLDs experienced aggregate growth in the third quarter of 2014, reaching a combined total of 130.0 million domain names in the adjusted zone for .com and .net. This represents a 3.3 percent increase year over year. As of Sept. 30, 2014, the base of registered names in .com equaled 114.9 million names, while .net equaled 15.1 million names.
New .com and .net registrations totaled 8.7 million during the third quarter of 2014. In the third quarter of 2013, new .com and .net registrations totaled 8.3 million.
During the third quarter of 2014, Verisign’s average daily Domain Name System (DNS) query load was 114 billion across all TLDs operated by Verisign, with a peak of 318 billion, the highest average and peak query loads in a single quarter to date. Compared to the previous quarter, the daily average increased 20.1 percent and the peak increased 55.6 percent. Year over year, the daily average query load increased 40 percent and the peak query load increased 202.1 percent.
Although it’s still unclear how much impact current cryptocurrency systems will ultimately have on the “real-world” of finance, what is clear already is that Internet-based applications — enabled by ubiquitous networking and computing — are a powerful force for financial innovation. This quarter’s featured article, “Cryptocurrency and the Domain Name System,” offers a primer on cryptocurrency and the DNS.
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 third quarter Domain Name Industry Brief, as well as previous reports, can be obtained at VerisignInc.com/DNIB.
