.uk ccTLD Overtakes .cn ccTLD

The .uk ccTLD domain name count for the April 2010 was 8,483,010. The .cn ccTLD domain name count for April 2010 was 8,254,681. The .uk ccTLD, adminstered by Nominet, has overtaken the .cn ccTLD and is now the second largest ccTLD globally after the .de ccTLD (13,630,401 domains as of the end of April)  according to the domain name counts for the major ccTLDs and gTLDs. The drop in .cn figures is due to many of the low cost .cn domain registrations that were registered over the last few years due to special offers being dropped.  This resulted in roughly 5.4 million .cn domains being dropped since .cn’s December 2009 figure and approximately 4 million domains since January 2010’s figure. However the rate of .cn domain name deletions is slowing as the the bulk of the special offer domain names have been dropped from the ccTLD without being renewed.

The growth of .uk ccTLD has the characteristic of a mature ccTLD in that it is steadier with fewer wild spikes in new domain registrations and deletions. The .cn is still very much a new ccTLD as it was only opened to external registrations a few years ago.  The uncertain European economic climate has made the UK a more attractive market and there is likely to be an increase in registrants in European countries continuing to register .uk domains. The .uk is also the second most important ccTLD in Ireland after the .ie ccTLD as there is an adjacent market effect due to both markets sharing using the English language. This is similar to the Austria/Germany adjacent market effect. The .eu ccTLD has not been quite the success it could have been in the UK and the UK .eu domain registrations represent less than 10% of the UK domain footprint. Many of the .eu registrations in the UK are owned by cyberwarehousers and cybersquatters and there is little natural use of .eu websites and domain names in the UK.