Verisign, the registry for both .COM and .NET, released its Q4 report last year. The report showed there were 173.8 million registered domain names in both zones as of December 31, 2022. This is immediately 0.4 million fewer than at the beginning of Q4, and the year-over-year growth was more than modest - only 0.2%.
It should be noted that Verisign analysts had cut their growth projections during the previous year since they were aware that the situation was not improving. In early 2022, the registry was optimistic about an annual growth rate of 2.5% to 4.5%. But on October 27, a new forecast was released - with significantly more modest expectations. In it, annual growth rates were estimated at 0.25-1.0%. However, a noticeable decrease in the number of registrations in the last two months of the year did not allow even reaching these values.
The company, apparently, made the appropriate conclusions. According to the Domain Name Wire, the forecast for 2023 looks very cautious. The maximum possible growth rate is estimated at 2.5% and the minimum at 0.0%. However, the company's revenues still grew regardless of the modest results. And they will obviously continue to grow: in September 2022, Verisign once again increased the prices for registering names in the .COM domain by 7%, and now announced the same increase from September 1 of this year.
