NET Zone File below 15 million domains

dog · Oct 14, 2017

Noticed the .NET Zone File is below 15 million domains.

As of today 14,939,181 .NET domains in the zone. There are 14,692,026 active .NET domains in the zone file as of today.

What do you think this is happening? What do you think this means for .NET?

Have new Gs affected registrations and usage? Are businesses moving more toward ccTLDs, such as .UK, for launching new sites?

Skinner · Oct 15, 2017

In July 2013 the last time I downloaded the .NET zone there were

14,826,604, so I'd say its doing better growth than .co.uk.

dog · Oct 16, 2017

Last time I checked .NET was around 15.5 million.

I guess it's all the Chinese drops? If the zone was about the size it is today 4 years ago, that means growth has stagnated.

Ehh, ccTLDs are better.

Skinner · Oct 16, 2017

Last I looked how UK family is going, they were actually shrinking so stagnation would be better.

I can't look up right now, but .UK has done a number on the UK family.

Skinner · Oct 18, 2017

@RobM do you have figures to hand based on your database what the average .UK size on any given month for say 2012/13 (pre .uk) compared to previous 2017.

Just wondering how the picture looks growth wise.

My data only goes back to June 2016. My database prior to zone release was less than half the total.

Total 10.61 - .UK 570k - June 16
Total 10.82 - .UK 640k - Sept 17

My database is massively out of whack after a hosting screw up, so may not be accurate on the sept scan.

However it would appear very little difference in the .NET to .UK growth.

martin-s · Oct 18, 2017

https://www.nominet.uk/news/reports-statistics/

Skinner · Oct 18, 2017

I was hoping to go back to before .UK existed to see his growth was. What page goes to start of .UK :/

Unless I'm missing the older stuff ?

Edwin · Oct 18, 2017

https://www.nominet.uk/news/reports-statistics/uk-register-statistics-2014/

The June 2014 figures cover the start of .uk since it was introduced on 10 June 2014.

I agree that it would be nice to have detailed stats going back earlier, but at least you can see how .uk has evolved.

Skinner · Oct 18, 2017

My memory says .UK (family) was growing quite steadily prior to all mention of .UK, and seems to have stalled over the .UK (2ld) launch, be interesting to see 2011-2012-2013 to compare.

Off the top of my head I didn't think was much difference between .net and .uk, seems i was right.

Edwin · Oct 18, 2017

Here's a visual look at how the UK namespace has evolved since .uk was introduced (.co.uk and total on LH axis, .uk on RH axis). All figures come from Nominet's publicly reported stats.

The dramatic spike on the far right of the graph shows the impact of the .uk freebie giveaway, both on .uk numbers and on the total number of UK namespace domains.

Edwin · Oct 18, 2017

Skinner said:
My memory says .UK (family) was growing quite steadily prior to all mention of .UK, and seems to have stalled over the .UK (2ld) launch, be interesting to see 2011-2012-2013 to compare

The 10 millionth UK namespace domain was registered on 16 March 2012, so growth had been minimal for a while even before .uk launched.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17393008

martin-s · Oct 18, 2017

Does anyone have an archive of the old board communiques? They used to give stat updates I think?

The BI tool also used to have a public equivalent I thought, but I can't find that anywhere.

Momentum · Oct 20, 2017

.Net's role as a secondary gTLD is definitely taking a hit from all of the extra choices in TLDs.

RobM · Oct 20, 2017

Expect the blue line on that graph to follow the red on that graph the minute people actually have to start *paying* for their registrations. This might as well be a graph for .xyz, .club, or any of the other unwanted crap thrust on us by greedy corporates without a brain or understanding of what people actually want.

martin-s · Oct 20, 2017

Rather than it being the spike that interests me, it's the plateau before it.

From Aug 16 to April 17, 9 months passed where just 16,300 .uk names were registered in total. And then, quelle surprise, in April, Nominet decided to give .uk away for free to try and reinvigorate registration numbers and save it from dying off completely.

Until businesses start using .uk names, public recognition won't improve. If that doesn't happen by June 2019 it's going to be highly embarrassing when millions of names are dropped overnight.

123-Reg setting them to auto-renew might help avoid that embarrassment, which is perhaps why Nominet are letting it happen?

martin-s · Oct 20, 2017

That there were 125,000 or so new .uk domains registered during the same 9 months, but almost 110,000 were dropped by the look of it. What's the actual renewal rate I wonder?

dog · Oct 23, 2017

Does anyone have access to this UKDC tool?

https://www.acorndomains.co.uk/threads/centr-award-win-for-nominets-ukdc-team.150410/

Would have good incite. .UK has a much better chance of growth compared to new GTLDs.

Skinner · Oct 23, 2017

I believe you only get insight into your own domains while nominet get a heap of valuable data.

dog · Oct 28, 2017

I'm sure Nominet will release a PR talking about the incredible growth of .UK domains next year.

Edwin said:
Here's a visual look at how the UK namespace has evolved since .uk was introduced (.co.uk and total on LH axis, .uk on RH axis). All figures come from Nominet's publicly reported stats.

The dramatic spike on the far right of the graph shows the impact of the .uk freebie giveaway, both on .uk numbers and on the total number of UK namespace domains.

NtldStats is showing consistent drops each day. When investors start dropping more, it will be a bloodbath for many new gTLDs.

RobM said:
Expect the blue line on that graph to follow the red on that graph the minute people actually have to start *paying* for their registrations. This might as well be a graph for .xyz, .club, or any of the other unwanted crap thrust on us by greedy corporates without a brain or understanding of what people actually want.

Ahh. Useful data would be on the whole .UK namespace.

Skinner said:
I believe you only get insight into your own domains while nominet get a heap of valuable data.

RobM · Oct 28, 2017

There is no 'useful' data until crunch time (ie get out the credit cards). Even then we will have the period where people like 123reg are taking money from people and renewing uks without their awareness so really it's going to be a year after that date before it settles into the pattern, which so many of us know from past hype, it will fall into.