Nearly one million websites could be launched on Leap Year day
One.com, the innovative supplier of web hosting services, predicts that the 2012 leap year will accelerate the data explosion as the extra day sees a significant increase in the number of websites, domain names and files uploaded online. Along with websites and domain names, the number of email accounts and files shared online increased dramatically in 2011 and the trend looks set to continue in 2012.
No longer reserved for large corporates or government departments, the number of websites created each day continues to rise as bloggers, individuals and SMEs also broaden their reach online. In 2011, 300 million new websites were created bringing the current total to 555 million websites (not including those that have been deregistered or deleted). One.com predicts that more than 820,000 websites will be created today (February 29) alone.
Domain names continue to be big business, with Social.com selling for $2.6 million in 2011. Approximately 160,000 domain names are registered each day as new websites are created or brands and individuals look to protect their online identity by securing various domains. The most popular extension remains .com, with 6.7 million new .com domains being registered in 2011. At the same rate, One.com believes this could see more than 18,000 being registered today.
As the number of online properties increases, so does the level of sharing. Forty-eight hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute and 86,400 photos are uploaded to Instagram each day.
“The proliferation of the Internet has meant that there is more information available than ever before and sharing it ismade easier every day. The extra 24 hours that a leap year brings could mean millions more files shared and hundreds of thousands of websites springing up,” said Thomas Medard Frederiksen, COO at One.com.
“When enjoying all the net has to offer, people should take care to ensure that, while uploading files to sharing services or social networks, they have backed up important files, such as irreplaceable photographs of memorable moments. With our Cloud Drive, part of our web hosting packages, storing and sharing files is easy and files are accessible at any time, from anywhere by simply logging into your account via a browser or by using one of the apps for mobile devices.”