Internet grows to over 252 million domain names in 2012

6.1 million new domain names added in Q4 of CY12, says VeriSign Domain Name Industry brief

About six million domain names were added to the internet in the fourth quarter of 2012, bringing the total number of registered domain names to a little more than 252 million worldwide across all top-level domains (TLDs).

According to the latest issue of VeriSign’s Domain Name Industry Brief, the increase of 6.1 million domain names in the quarter ended December 31, 2012, equates to a growth rate of 2.5 per cent over the preceding quarter. This also marks the eighth straight quarter with greater than two per cent growth. The worldwide registrations have grown by 26.6 million, an increase of 11.8 per cent over the previous year.

The Domain Name Industry Brief, which is published by VeriSign, a provider internet infrastructure services, provides statistical and analytical research on the domain name industry.

According to the report, the .com and .net domains totalled around 121.1 million at the end of 2012, representing a growth of 6.4 per cent year-on-year. As of December 31, 2012, the base of registered names in .com equaled 106.2 million, while .net equaled 14.9 million, VeriSign, said in a statement. It said the new .com and .net registrations totalled 8 million during the fourth quarter of 2012. The .com and .net renewal rate during this period was 72.9 percent, slightly up from 72.5 per cent reported in the third quarter of 2012.