The Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries (CENTR) has published its Q2 GLOBAL TLD REPORT. According to the report, about 317 million domain names were registered in the world as of June 30. Almost a third of them (32 percent) are ccTLDs.
Among European countries, which are CENTR members, the number of registered domain names was approximately 116 million (a 2 percent increase compared to the same period last year, of which 69 million are ccTLDs, 35 million .COM domains, and 13 million representing other domain zones. The median growth of European ccTLDs in Q2 was 3.6 percent, down from a high of 4.9 percent in the first quarter.
The report links this trend to the easing of coronavirus restrictions, which previously generated extremely high demand for domain names from small and medium-sized businesses, and which quickly changed their activities online. However, the overall average annual growth rate of European ccTLDs continues to be at the highest level in the last five years.
The average level of registration renewal in the European ccTLDs continued to grow: in the second quarter, it reached 81 percent. The average price for domain registration in CENTR member states’ ccTLDs was €10.80 and €11.80 in .COM. In addition, the report provides interesting statistics. Many experts call the European domain market oversaturated, but CENTR data runs counter to this opinion: according to CENTR, the median number of registered domain names per 100 people in Europe is 11, and in at least 20 European countries this figure is even lower. So, there are still lots of opportunities for growth.
