The global domain name market in 2020

The market in 2020 – key figures

Following a steady increase since 2018, the market recovery came to an abrupt halt in the second quarter of 2020, with annual growth falling from 6.1% end of April to 1.3% at the end of December.

With 155 million names, the .com domain remains the heavyweight, increasing its market share with +4.4.% growth. The 17 other legacy TLDs continue to lose stock, although this downward trend is less marked than in 2019 (-1.8% in 2020 vs -6% in 2019).

Country TLDs (ccTLDs) are stable at 37% of market share, despite a slight fall in stock (-0.9%). However, these figures do not reflect the reality experienced by most ccTLD registries, which was that of a strong increase.

nTLDs lost 1% of stock following two years of strong growth (+15.4% in 2018 and +19.2% in 2019. This result is primarily due to two factors: the expiry of many .icu in October 2020 and the negative balance of .top domains (-1.6 million names).

ccTLDs and the digital transition

Taken as a whole, ccTLDs fell by 0.9% in 2020 (vs +4.7% in 2019).

The majority of ccTLD registries experienced a sharp increase in create operations in 2020 due to the acceleration of the digital transition, particularly among VSEs/SMEs, craftpersons and small retailers, like the .fr domain which posted a remarkable year at 7% growth and +14% in create operations.

Nevertheless, three major TLDs were particularly impacted due to their exposure to domaining, and their fluctuations had a decisive influence on the overall performance of ccTLDs in light of their stock: .cn (China) with -6.6% and a loss of 1.7 million names, .tw (Taiwan) domain, and .uk (United Kingdom) with -16.8% and a loss of 2.1 million domain names.

.com: a stable heavyweight

In terms of volume and growth, the .com domain is the only Legacy TLD that has continued to grow, with create operations up +4%, along with .org (+3% in stock and +17% in create operations). This growth remains moderate compared to most ccTLDs, and could be explained by an offset phenomenon: the wave of create operations linked to the digital transition of businesses being offset by the fall in domaining.

The performance of nTLDs

Geographic TLDs (geoTLDs) posted growth of 8% in stock and 45% in terms of create operations, and seem to have also benefited from the effects of the acceleration of the digital transition.

New generic TLDs (gTLDs) are down 3%. This net balance is first and foremost linked to large fluctuations in both directions. It should be noted that some gTLDs linked to e-commerce activities understandably thrived in 2020, such as .shop (+131,000 names), .store (+182,000), and .online (+437,000).

Brand TLDs (.brand) saw their create operations almost double and their growth rate increase by 6%, but at the same time their retention rate fell 23 points. Open .brands posted 4% growth, with positive and negative fluctuations averaging out as for gTLDs.

The figures for Community TLDs cannot be commented as they contain anomalies.