Verisign: 271 million domains worldwide (7.3% increase in 2013)

Verisign today announced that five million domain names were added to the Internet in Q4 of 2013, bringing the registered domain names total to 271 million worldwide. Compared to last year, worldwide registrations have grown by 18.5 million (7.3%).

Think .com is dead? Think again:

• New .com and .net registrations totaled 8.2 million during the fourth quarter of 2013 compared to 8.0 million in 2012, which is a 5% increase year over year
• 47.7% of four-character domain names, over 95.3% of five-character domain names and more than 99.8% of six-character domain names are still available as of Dec. 31, 2013

Furthermore, Verisign shared that its average daily Domain Name System (DNS) query load was 82 billion across all TLDs operated by Verisign, with a peak of 100 billion. Year over year, the daily average increased 6.4% and the peak decreased 19.2%.

Here is the complete announcement:

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), the global leader in domain names, today announced five million domain names were added to the Internet in the fourth quarter of 2013, bringing the total number of registered domain names to 271 million worldwide across all top-level domains (TLDs) as of Dec. 31, 2013, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief.

Is it likely that we will run out of domain names? No, the number of possible second-level domain names in any TLD is an extremely large number. Refer to page 4 of the Domain Name Industry Brief for further explanation.

The increase of five million domain names globally equates to a growth rate of 1.9 percent over the third quarter of 2013. Worldwide registrations have grown by 18.5 million, or 7.3 percent, year over year.

The .com and .net TLDs experienced aggregate growth in the fourth quarter of 2013, reaching a combined total of approximately 127.2 million domain names in the adjusted zone for .com and .net. This represents a 5 percent increase year over year. As of Dec. 31, 2013, the base of registered names in .com equaled 112 million names, while .net equaled 15.2 million names.

New .com and .net registrations totaled 8.2 million during the fourth quarter of 2013. In the fourth quarter of 2012, new .com and .net registrations totaled 8.0 million.

During the fourth quarter of 2013, Verisign’s average daily Domain Name System (DNS) query load was 82 billion across all TLDs operated by Verisign, with a peak of 100 billion. Compared to the previous quarter, the daily average increased 0.9 percent and the peak decreased 5.5 percent. Year over year, the daily average increased 6.4 percent and the peak decreased 19.2 percent.

As the Internet continues to evolve, it is crucial for enterprises to have a powerful and resilient infrastructure that maintains 24/7 availability. “DNS Outages: The Challenges of Operating Critical Infrastructure” provides a high-level overview of the implications of DNS outages and the importance of staying ahead of threats.

Verisign publishes the Domain Name Industry Brief to provide Internet users throughout the world with statistical and analytical research and data on the domain name industry. Copies of the 2013 fourth quarter Domain Name Industry Brief, as well as previous reports, can be obtained at VerisignInc.com/DNIB.

About Verisign
As the global leader in domain names, Verisign powers the invisible navigation that takes people to where they want to go on the Internet. For more than 15 years, Verisign has operated the infrastructure for a portfolio of top-level domains that today includes .com, .net, .tv, .edu, .gov, .jobs, .name, and .cc, as well as two of the world’s 13 Internet root servers. Verisign’s product suite also includes Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Protection Services, iDefense Security Intelligence Services and Managed DNS. To learn more about what it means to be Powered by Verisign, please visit VerisignInc.com.