The Next Step in Domain Names

THE NEXT STEP IN DOMAIN NAMES Big changes to the Internet domain names are coming very soon and they will open up a wealth of online marketing and domain name registration opportunities for small and medium size businesses. INTERNET TRAFFIC The number of people using the internet to search and find information is growing 7 billion people on the planet 2.4 billion 34% of the population people on the Internet worldwide There are more devices connected to the Internet than there are people on Earth new people come onto the Internet every second 61% of global Internet users research products online TOP COUNTRIES The top countries with the highest number of Internet users include: China USA India Japan Brazil Russia Germany Indonesia UK France HOW BIG IS THE WEB? The web is growing! Over 240 million 30 June 2012 Domain names registered across all Top Level Domains In the second quarter 7 million Domain names were of 2012, more than registered! Registrations have grown by www. 25.5 million or 11.9% in 2012 compared to 2011 And then there's... www.thelongestlist ofthelongeststuff atthelongestdomainname atlonglast.com www.thelongestdomainname intheWorldandthensomeand thensomemoreandmore.com Claims to be the longest domain name DOMAIN NAMES It's getting harder to register your preferred domain name By the second quarter of 2012 103.7 million .COM .com domain names .NET 14.8 million .net domain names 100.3 million .COUNTRY Country code top level domain names registered (For example, .CN, .UK, .DE etc) In Australia 600% Increase in the total number of registered .au domain names since Dec 2002 (with most of those being .com.au names) 256 721 0 Total number of Australian domain names registered (as of Nov 2012) COMING SOON! By mid 2013, we may start to see new generic Top Level Domain Names, for example: 24 .shop .lawyer .hotel .camera .bank .sydney A great opportunity will soon exist for companies to register their preferred domain name if they weren't able to before, for example: rachels.florist bobshardware.sydney Andys.pizza Small and medium size businesses can register a new domain name that can relate better to their business, industry, products and services or location THE BENEFITS FOR BUSINESSES Some initial benefits of these generic Top Level Domain Names include: You will soon have greater choice of domains. If you missed out on your preferred name in .com or .au, these new domains will provide new opportunities Greater marketing and advertising opportunities Potentially good for SEO Easier to remember. For example, a call to action like 'visit andys.pizza to get this special offer'is easier to remember than 'visit www.andyspizza.com.au/offer Increased brand visibility Clearer and more targeted domain names WHAT WILL YOUR BUSINESS DO? Will you register all business names and products in all possible categories available or just limit your registrations to a small number of key domains? It's clear that businesses should start thinking about their online marketing strategy now to take advantage of the best new names when they are released! Sources: http://mashable.com/2011/06/19/how-many-websites#17197How-Fast-Is-the-Web-Growing http://thesocialskinny.com/216-social-media-and-internet-statistics-september-2012/ http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/world-overview/34-world-usage-patterns-and-demographics http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm http://www.internetworldstats.com/top20.htm http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/long2.html http://www.thelongestdomainnameintheworldandthensomeandthensomemoreandmore.com/ http://www.domainregistration.com.au/news/2012/1201-australian-domain-statistics.php http://www.verisigninc.com/assets/domain-name-brief-oct2012.pdf http://www.ausregistry.com.au/ Information and design brought to you by: Visit us: www.melbourneit.com.au Blog: www.melbourneit.com.au/blog MELBOURNE IT Follow us: @melbourneit Like us: www.facebook.com/melbourneit