Number of Internet domain names continues to grow

Domain names continue to show growth across the Internet, according to the second quarter 2009 Domain Name Industry Brief published by VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world.

The second quarter of 2009 ended with a total base of 184 million domain name registrations across all of the Top Level Domains (TLDs). This represents a one percent increase over the first quarter of 2009 and growth of nine percent over the same quarter of last year.

During the second quarter, Country Code TLDs (ccTLDs) rose by 14 percent year over year to 74.4 million domain names – a total that represents a one percent rise from the first quarter of 2009. The base of ccTLDs domain names was impacted by a loss in base for .cn and .eu. In terms of total registrations, .com remains the most popular TLD category, followed by .cn (China), .de (Germany) and .net. This mix remains unchanged from last quarter.

The overall base of .com and .net domain names grew to 93.5 million domain names during the second quarter of 2009. This represents a one percent increase over the first quarter of 2009, a seven percent increase over the same quarter of the previous year, and a 28 percent increase over the second quarter of 2007.