Verisign, the registry of gTLDs .COM and .NET, presented its financial report for the Q3 of this year. It is focused primarily on economic indicators and in this regard it looks quite prosperous. Considering the next increase in prices for registration operations in the .COM domain zone by 10% from September 1, this looks quite logical. However, results from Verisign's core business are not so promising.
The report estimates the total number of registrations in .COM and .NET at 173.9 million. This is 0.1% less than in the same period of the previous year, the Online Domain reports. At the same time, during the period from July to September, the number of registrations in the .COM and .NET domain zones decreased by 500,000. Verisign analysts attribute this negative result primarily to a decrease in activity in the Chinese domain market.
The number of new domain name registrations carried out in the Q3 of this year in the .COM and .NET amounted to 9.9 million. This corresponds to the level of the end of September last year, so no growth was achieved in this indicator either. And finally, another important indicator– the average renewal rate of domain name registrations - has decreased. In the Q3 it amounted to 73.4%, while a year earlier it was estimated at 73.8%. The report, however, states that the estimate of the average registration renewal rate is still approximate: accurate data will be received 45 days after the end of the Q3.
