au domains increase with competition - News - Business

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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au domains increase with competition

By James Pearce, ZDNet Australia
August 07, 2003
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/au-domains-increase-with-competition/0,139023166,120276945,00.htm

The number of Australian domain names has increased by 24 percent, according to the au Domain Administrator.

The end-of-year report from AusRegistry -- which maintains the Australian domain registry -- and auDA, which manages the industry, reveals that the total number of domains in the dot-au space increased from 280,237 a year ago to 347,602 at the end of June 2003. The increase of 67,365 Australian domain names equates to a 24 percent increase since the deregulation of the domain name industry.

"The introduction of competition and the changes in naming policy have led to this growth at a time when, in global domain name spaces such as .com, registrations are declining," said auDA CEO, Chris Disspain. However the Web Host Industry Review has reported that the number of dot-com domain names registered is the largest it has ever been. There are now 23,795,131 dot-com domain names registered, which is 477,657 higher than the previous record in October 2001, the height of the dot-com boom.

All sub domains in the au space increased in number over the year. Com-dot-au domains had the largest increase in terms of absolute numbers (20.8 percent growth), but net-dot-au domains had the largest percentage growth at 57.5 percent. Org-dot-au grew by 44.3 percent and asn-dot-au by 12.9 percent.

The latest second-level domain to be introduced in Australia, id-dot-au, designed for personal use, had a lower than expected take-up, with only 2,527 people choosing to register an id-dot-au domain.

There were 110,278 registrations over the year, and 66,113 renewals. Over 40,000 domain name holders chose not to renew their domains.

The number of auDA-accredited registrars in the marketplace has increased from nine to 19, with two registrars still provisional.

The competition has hit Melbourne IT, the incumbent registrar, which has seen its market share slip to 72.57 percent over the course of the year. The registrar with the second largest market share is Enetica, with 5.58 percent of the market. auDA follows with 4.30 percent. The other major registrars are TPP Internet (4.17 percent), NetRegistry (3.95 percent) and PlanetDomain (2.02 percent).

The report indicates AusRegistry has exceeded all performance levels set by auDA in its Service Level Agreement.

"The registry service levels required by auDA are set to world's best practice standards," said Disspain. "AusRegistry continues to surpass these as well as refining and updating its systems and technologies."