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."
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It is not correct anymore, that the registrations in .com are declining.
It is a pity, that many Australians do not know the new rules of .com.au. Otherwise the registrations would increase more.
Com.au/net.au
Since July 1 2002 there are new rules for Australian domain names:
The net.au and com.au-domains are still restricted to Australian Companies, but also a foreign company licenced to trade in Australia or an owner or applicant of an Australian Registered Trade Mark are entiteled to com.au-domains and net.au-domains, as the website www.au-domains.com explains.
If you have already managed to secure your com.au-domain, you should also register your
Name at net.au, as no other can disturb your marketing position by registering this name. By the way:
Your changes at search engines are higher with two domains.
The name rules have also changed since July 1 2002:The domain names should be identical
with the companies name or the trade marks, but can also be an acronym or abbreviation of the business name or trademark.
And it is also sufficient, that the domain names are otherwise closely and substantially connected to the registrant, because they refer to a product, service, an event, an activity, a venue or a profession of the registrant.
Since July 1 2002 also one important rule has changed: The number of domain names per applicant is no longer limited. In other words: You can register as many domain names as you want or need.
You can read more detailled information about com.au and net.au-domains at http://www.au-domains.com
id.au
If you have no company, you can register .id.au: Every Australian and every Resident in Australia is entiteled to register id.au-domain names.
The domain name must reflect your personal name, be an abbreviation or acronym of the name, or be derived from one or more words of your world or contain one or more words of your name.
The number of domain names per applicant is no longer limited. In other words: You can register as many domain names as you want or need.
You can get more detailed information about id.au-domains at http://www.au-domains.com
asn.au
An association, political party, a trade union, a sporting or interesting club is entiteled to register asn.au-domains.
The domain names should be identical with the association's name, but can also be an acronym or abbreviation of the association's name.
And it is also sufficient, that the domain names are otherwise closely and substantially connected to the registrant, because they refer to a product, service, an event, an activity, a venue or a profession of the registrant.
The number of domain names per applicant is no longer limited. In other words: You can register as many domain names as you want or need.
You can study more detailled information about asn.au-domains at http://www.au-domains.com
org.au
Registrants must be a non profit organisation or charity operating in Australia.
The domain names should be identical with the organization's name, but can also be an acronym or abbreviation of the name or trademark.
And it is also sufficient, that the domain names are otherwise closely and substantially connected to the registrant, because they refer to a product, service, an event, an activity, a venue or a profession of the registrant.
The number of domain names per applicant is no longer limited. In other words: You can register as many domain names as you want or need.
You can get more informations about org.au-domain registration at http://au-domains.com
If you want to read the new rules in detail, you should go to http://www.domainregistry.de/aupolicies.html