Public Interest Registry (PIR) that manages the .ORG TLD, has published its report for 2019. It shows a slight decrease in the number of domain names registered in the zone: over the course of last year, it dropped from 10.3 to 10.1 million. However, Domain Name Wire writes that for the registry that focused on the quality of new registrations rather than volume, the situation looks okay. Moreover, the number of .ORG domains renewed in 2019 was higher than in 2018. The renewal rate hit 78.2 percent during the year.
Speaking in financial terms, last year .ORG generated close to $95 million in revenue, while PIR’s operating income was $60 million. It distributed $67.5 million to Internet Society. It is noteworthy that at the end of last year a private company, Ethos Capital, tried to acquire PIR for $1.135 billion. The deal was agreed by Internet Society but blocked by ICANN after careful examination.
There is also financial update on ICANN. At the end of last week, ICANN CFO Xavier Calvez reported that the switch from three annual in-person meetings to online due to the COVID-19 pandemic could save as much as $8 million. To date, the corporation was thinking where this money could be allocated.
