LONDON. 19th November 2008, Nominet, the national registry for .uk domain names, issues its latest annual Domain name industry report revealing the importance of a .uk domain to small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) as their primary web address. The report also shows the continued increase in popularity of country code domain names driven by strong growth in countries such as China and Russia. This has pushed the market share of country codes to 40% of the global domain name market...
Much of the continued growth of the country code domain market is attributed to strong country codes that have continued to grow at a steady pace such as .uk. .uk registrations have proved popular over the last twelve months with registrations growing by 12% and 81% of SMEs registering a .uk as their primary web address.
The Chinese (.cn) and Russian (.ru) markets also made a huge contribution to the rise in country codes domains. The Chinese domain name market grew by 88%, with over 12 million domain names, and the Russian registry grew by 64%; rising from 16th to 7th place in the global domain name registry league table.
Phil Kingsland, Director of Marketing and Communications at Nominet, says: “We hope that this report will give businesses and individuals a useful insight into the way the domain name industry is developing. It is encouraging to see that country codes are the domain of choice for SMEs who are opting for a country code over a generic top level domain because it demonstrates a business is local and trusted.”
Kingsland adds: “Despite the fact that we have not yet seen the full impact of the global economic downturn .uk remains well placed to meet the challenges of the current climate. With trust and confidence in .uk riding high, it remains a trusted domain name space for businesses in the UK.”
Please see here (http://www.nominet.org.uk/go/dnir) for a full copy of the Nominet Domain Name Industry Report 2008.
About Nominet
Nominet operates at the heart of e-commerce in the UK, running one of the world’s largest Internet registries and managing over seven million domain names. Nominet maintains the register of .uk domain names and runs the DNS infrastructure that keeps .uk working. It runs the technology that locates a computer in the Internet hosting the web site or email system you’re looking for when you type in a web address or send an email to an address that ends in .uk. Nominet is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee that has members not shareholders, pays no dividends and its charges only cover its running costs. Anyone with an interest in the Internet may become a member. Nominet has over 2,800 members representing all areas of the Internet industry. Nominet also runs the Tier 1 registry for UK ENUM, a new UK registry service that combines telephone numbers and the Domain Name System to simplify the way telephone calls over the Internet work. It removes the need for connection to the telephone network and enables more calls to be made for free.
For further information, please contact:
Nominet team at Racepoint UK
Tel: 020 8752 3205 / 2271
Email: nominetuk@racepointgroup.co.uk
Source: Submission by the ICA to DomainNews.com on November 19th, 2008 - Posted by Roland G. Buck - Chief Editor