At the end of every quarter, Verisign publishes its Domain Name Industry Brief.  This highly anticipated publication has become a must read for everyone in the domain industry.  For the quarter ending December 31, 2010, Verisign has just published the latest brief.  For the full report click here.

Domain Name Industry Brief Highlights:

• There are now more than 205.3 million domain registrations across all Top Level Domains (TLDs), an increase of 3.5 million domain names, 0r 1.7 percent over the third quarter, registrations have grown by 12.1 million, or 6.3 percent over the past year.
• Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) reached 80.1 million domain names, a 1.1 percent increase quarter over quarter, and a 0.3 percent increase year over year. There are more than 240 ccTLD extensions globally, with the top 10 ccTLDs comprising 61 percent of all registrations.
• Poland and Australia also joined the Russian federation and the United States as top 20 ccTLDs exceeding 20 percent year-over-year growth. Among the 20 largest ccTLDs, Poland, Australia, Canada and Switzerland exceeded 4 percent quarter over quarter growth. Last quarter, four of the top 20 met the same threshold.
• .ORG moved up once notch and is now the 4th largest TLD industry wide. The  .CO.UK dropped one notch to 5th place overall.
• With one hundred million registered of .com and .net domains, Verisign estimates that 88 percent of .com and .net domain names resolve to a website

Graphical Overview of Brief:

HEXONET for the month of October will be featuring .ASIA domains by running a special pricing promotion. As part of this promotion, HEXONET would like to highlight the benefits of owning a .ASIA domain, as well as, detail the compelling reasons why businesses and consumers alike are purchasing .ASIA.

Explosive Growth of the Internet in Asia:

Asia is witnessing explosive adoption and usage of the Internet. Its two largest economies, China and India already have some 500 MILLION Internet users. According to a report just released by consulting firm McKinsey, Asia’s internet users will total over 1.1 billion by 2015. Furthermore, within five years, this market may generate revenues of more than $80 billion in Internet commerce, access fees, device sales, etc. McKinsey consulting projects that in a mere five years, China’s Internet users will double in size (55 percent of the population) and India’s will quintuple. For India, this means that 28 percent of its massive population will be online in a short period of time.

The Asia Pacific region is already an economic powerhouse. Many multinational companies from North America and Europe are successfully tapping into the region. Part of the overall strategy for succeeding in Asia has been developing a solid Internet marketing strategy that appeals to as many people as possible. One way that many of these firms reach the highly diverse Asian marketplace is through the use of the .ASIA domain. Some popular examples include giorgioarmani.asia, honda.asia and panasonic.asia.

.ASIA More than a Domain for Business:

Though multinational companies that have adopted the .ASIA domain, according to Edmon Chung, CEO of DotAsia Organisation (official registry operator of the .ASIA TLD), .ASIA domains are being used by a wide variety of peoples and organizations including:

• Regional companies in Asia
• Localized companies expanding to the greater Asia regional market
• Asia headquarters or subsidiaries of global companies
• NGOs and not-for-profit organizations in Asia, such as APNIC, APTLD, APNG, PAN/IDRC etc.
• Asia-based events, such as Asian Games, Asian Cup, ITU Telecom Asia, CommunicAsia, and many others
• Asia versions of global media or regional Asia media: Asian Wall Street Journal, Asia Computer Weekly, Channel News Asia, TV channels, etc..
  
• Asia-focused businesses: Air Asia, JetStar Asia, Aero Asia, etc.

Latest News on .ASIA:

• IDNs: Internationalized Domain Names or IDNs will soon become available for .ASIA domains (more). According to the registry Sunrise will start in Q4 of 2010 and Landrush is set for Q2 of 2011. GoLive for .ASIA IDNs is scheduled for Q3 of 2011. According to Edmon Chung, CEO of DotAsia, “Asia is one of the most important regions for IDN. Asia is already the largest Internet marketplace with over 700 million users online. However, that represents only 18.5% penetration. IDN will bring the Internet to the rest of the people in Asia who do not speak English … Small and Medium sized Enterprises around the world will benefit from IDN deployment. Local SMEs in Asia can leverage their existing brand in their native language to build their online presence with an IDN, while global SMEs can become more Asian-friendly by adopting an Asian IDN as their web address.”
• KeepClicking.Asia: DotAsia Organisation has launched KeepClicking.Asia, a social platform and focal point for people to learn about the development of Asia’s Internet marketplace and the “.ASIA” domain.
• Ella Koon: Testament to the fact that the Internet in Asia represents a tremendous opportunity for international companies, leading domain registrar GoDaddy has just announced its new GoDaddy Girl to Asia, Ms. Ella Koon. Ms. Koon is a very popular model, actress and singer in Asia. Be sure to check out her personal website: ella.asia

HEXONET .ASIA Backordering Service and Info:

In March of this year, HEXONET launched backordering services for .ASIA domains. HEXONET is one of the first and only services for .ASIA. Many HEXONET customers are having fantastic success in securing dropped .ASIA domains! For more details, click here.

Please remember our fantastic .ASIA promotion. New 1 year .ASIA Domains at 5.83* (net: 4.90) USD per Domain/Year only for the month of October. This is the lowest price for .ASIA Domains HEXONET has ever offered. Don’t miss out!

Finally, if you currently don’t offer this TLD, we encourage you to consider offering this extension to your customers. We at HEXONET believe the .ASIA TLD has tremendous future growth potential.

AFNIC, the official registry operator of France’s .FR country-code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD), has completed their public consultation on opening the .FR domain to the rest of the European Union. Though the liberalization of .FR is not yet determined, if approved, the roll out will be for late 2011. Given this potentially great opportunity for .FR domains, HEXONET would like to take this opportunity to provide you with a quick overview of this ccTLD.

Overview:

• Current number of registered .FR domains stands at 1.8 Million
• Between 2008 and 2009, the .FR ccTLD grew at 25% (compared to other ccTLDs which averaged only 8%)
• According to AFNIC, since registrations opened to individuals in France in June 2006, and thanks to recent improvements in system automation and a reduction in registrars’ prices, .FR has become a strong TLD choice among the French. In fact, personal (non-corporate) registrants now make up a significant part of the overall growth of the .FR registry. Personal registrations now account for 50% of new .FR registrations, which was only 40% a year previously.
• Registration of .FR now accounts for:
  • 33% of all combined domain names registrations in France;
  • 80% of all new domain names registrations in France;
  • and the renewal rate for .FR names is very high at around 80%.
• On September 14th, AFNIC kicked off deployment of DNSSEC in France by signing the .FR Top Level Domain.
• The secondary market in France is underdeveloped compared to neighboring countries. However, in January 2010 the domain – Credit.FR – sold for €587,500 euros (approx. $785,000 USD), which is a good sign the after market for .FR is growing.

We at HEXONET believes the .FR ccTLD has tremendous growth potential, especially if the public consultation leads to a more open registration policy.  In the meantime, for those customers who reside outside of France and who are interested in registering .FR ccTLDs, HEXONET offers a trustee service for fast and easy registration …  more details.