IDN World Report presented data on the state of the IDN market over the past year. According to these figures, there are about 3.6 million IDNs registered worldwide: 2.2 million in ccTLDs and 1.4 million in gTLDs.
In a sample of 39 ccTLDs, the median annual growth in IDN registrations was 2.5%. This is slightly lower than the previous year (2.8%). Also, it falls far short of the median growth rate of 5.6% observed across the top 300 gTLDs. Other characteristics also showed a decrease. Thus, at the end of 2021, ccTLD registries rated the level of support for internationalized domain names by registrar companies at 3.5 points on a five-point scale. In 2022, this score was 3.1 points. The same applies to user awareness of the existence and possibilities of internationalized domains: registries rated it at 2.3 points on the same five-point scale. A year earlier, the level was estimated at 2.6 points.
On the positive side, 79 ccTLDs fully support internationalized name registrations, and 4 more intend to implement such support in the near future. However, internationalized domain names are still a drop in the ocean, accounting for less than 1% of all existing domain names. The authors of the report explain this by the historical features of the development of the Internet, which originated and became widespread in Western countries using the Latin encoding. Moreover, IDNs are still seen as one of the key factors in the further development of the global network - especially in countries that are just beginning to get acquainted with the Internet. In this regard, it is necessary to intensify educational work in order to increase the level of awareness of users about internationalized domains, the report says.
