Growth in .COM lower than 2013

The monthly growth in .COM TLD during 2014 is lower than that of 2013. The .COM growth figures published by HosterStats.com show that while growth in .COM is still positive, it has slowed compared to other years. It has been suggested that the launch of the new gTLDs is responsible for this slower growth. That is incorrect. The launch of the new gTLDs have had little or no effect on the growth patterns in .COM TLD and this is part of a long-term trend as the combined graph for 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014 shows. The .COM market is a global one whereas the new gTLDs are, for the moment, largely a US focused event. In most mature country level markets, the combined .COM/.ccTLD axis will account for over 80% of the domains registered in that country’s market. The importance of the main gTLDs can be seen on the gTLDs by country chart.

One of the more interesting effects visible in the graph is that the market in .COM slows down somewhat in the Summer months but generally increases later through the year. The net growth figures in May, June and July 2014 were some of the worst that .COM has seen outside the Domain Tasting years. However the net growth figure for August 2014 rebounded from these lows.

The .COM TLD is still the number one global TLD and that dominance is unlikely to be challenged for some time. The real strength of .COM is that in a month, the TLD would have more new registrations than the entire number of new gTLDs to date. It is still considered a “must register” option by many ccTLD registrants and it is the de-facto US market’s ccTLD.

Each month HosterStats.com publishes the Top 1000 gTLD Hosters Report covering the .com .net .org .biz .info .mobi .asia and .us TLDs. The report is Microsoft Excel based and is priced at 30 Euro for a single copy. The top 1000 hosters in each TLD host over 80% of the domain names in that TLD. This report provides a good and cost-efficient overview of the main monthly domain name transactions in each TLD.