Internet grows to 333.8 million Domain Name Registrations in the first quarter of 2018

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), a company which deals with domain names and internet security, today announced that approximately 1.4 million domain name registrations were added to the internet in the first quarter of 2018. This brings the total number of domain name registrations to approximately 333.8 million across all top-level domains (TLDs).

The increase of approximately 1.4 million domain name registrations globally equates to a growth rate of 0.4 percent over the fourth quarter of 2017.1,2 The Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB) further shows that domain name registrations have grown by approximately 3.2 million, or 1.0 percent, year over year.

Following are the key Highlights:

•The .com and .net TLDs had a combined a total of approximately 148.3 million domain name registrations in the domain name base at the end of the first quarter of 2018. This represents an increase of approximately 1.9 million domain name registrations, or 1.3 percent, as compared to the fourth quarter of 2017

•As of March 31, 2018, the .com domain name base totaled approximately 133.9 million domain name registrations, whereas the .net domain name base totaled approximately 14.4 million domain name registrations

•The .com and .net TLDs had a combined increase of approximately 4.6 million domain name registrations, or 3.2 percent, Y-O-Y

•New .com and .net domain name registrations totaled approximately 9.6 million at the end of the first quarter of 2018, as compared to 9.5 million domain name registrations for the first quarter of 2017

•Growth of .com and .net domain names redirecting to popular global social media and e-commerce sites compared to Q1 2017 is dominated by Instagram (70%) followed by Etsy (18%) and LinkedIn (16%)

•Total new gTLD (ngTLD) domain name registrations were approximately 20.2 million at the end of the first quarter of 2018, with a decrease of 0.4 million domain name registrations, or 2.0 percent, compared to the fourth quarter of 2017. ngTLDs decreased by approximately 5.3 million domain name registrations, or 20.7 percent, year over year

Verisign publishes the Domain Name Industry Brief in order to provide statistical and analytical research data on the domain name industry. While during the second quarter of 2017 Domain Name Industry Briefs and previous reports, can be obtained at Verisign.com/DNIB.