Monday, September 12, 2011

97 Million .com Domains Registered!

As we keep the countdown flame going on the way to 100 million .com domains, yet another milestone has been reached.  As it currently stands, 97,086,942 domains are currently registered.  This represents an average registration increase of 16,675 per day since we last checked on August 29th.

Where is the continued growth coming from?  A lot of it is from China.

Here is a graph showing .com domain registration at two of China's top registrars, xinnetdns.com and hichina.com, over the last eight years:

Online Graphing
Graph maker

Internet penetration is still in its early stages in China, so there is a lot more room for growth in  Chinese .com registration, and especially in numeric domains, which are very popular in China.  The current near-buyout of five-digit .com domains (NNNNN.com's) and fast-increasing prices for four digit domains, which now fetch around $700-$1,000 per domain as a minimum, are an indication of what the future holds.

For those that have made investments or are considering investments in Chinese real estate ($TAO, $EJ, $CHLN, $XIN), you might consider an investment in "virtual" Chinese real estate to augment your portfolio.   Numeric domains rank high in the Alexa top Chinese websites, and Chinese internet users often prefer numbers to letters because of their cultural significance and their unfamiliarity with western characters.  And numeric domains are in short supply.  There are only 10,000 four digit .com domains, which are all registered, 100,000 five digit .com domains, which are more than 99.9% registered, and a million six digit .com domains, which, surprisingly enough, a significant chunk of are registered and some already sell for inflated prices.  This is the future of domain investing.

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