Trends: long-term, paid, Cyrillic

ProcessedstatisticsOn the registration of .UA domain names for the first quarter of 2011. The results were analyzed by Svetlana Tkachenko, Head of the Development and Operations Department at Hostmaster LLC.

The dynamics of .UA domain registrations in the first quarter of 2011 can be described as stable. While interest in these domains declined somewhat at the very beginning of the year, a significant increase (+200 domains) is currently being observed.

In my opinion, a trend that emerged in the first quarter deserves close attention: registrants' desire for long-term partnerships. This is evidenced by the increase in the number of domain name renewals in the kiev.ua and com.ua domains, the shift in user preferences toward paid domains, and the penetration of Cyrillic into public domains.

Total number of names in the .UA domain

The first quarter of 2011 ended with 558,989 registered domains, meaning the total number of domains increased by 13,740 in the first three months of the year.

The largest increase in domains was observed in January, with an average of 170 names added daily, and the number of domains increased by 0.95% during that month. Growth was significantly smaller in February and March: 0.78% and 0.76%, respectively.

Growth in the total number of .UA domains

Private second-level domains in .UA

The increase in the number of private second-level domains in .UA for the first quarter of 2011 was 544 (for comparison: the first quarter of 2010 gave an increase in the .ua domain by 458 names, in 2009 - by 366).

Although at the beginning of the year there was a decrease in the activity of registrants (the growth in the number of domains in January 2011 was +165, and in February +160), in March 2011 interest in .ua domains increased again (+219).

The renewal rate for the .UA domain has always been higher than for other domains; in the first quarter of 2011, it was 95.4%.

In the first quarter, new .UA domains were registered approximately equally by both legal entities and individuals (45% and 55%, respectively).

Public domains

Let me remind you that in .UA there are thematic (there are seven of them: com.ua, dominic.ua, edu.ua, gov.ua, in.ua, net.ua, org.ua) and geographic (by the names of regional centers) public domains.

The ratio between these groups has remained stable for the past several years: two-thirds are thematic domains, one-third are geographic domains. The first quarter of 2011 brought no changes, and the balance of power remains consistent with this formula: 64.8% are thematic domains, 35.2% are geographic domains.

Ratio of public second-level domains

The main growth in the number of thematic domains is driven by com.ua, net.ua, org.ua, and the domain in.ua, which has shown record growth rates in the last quarter.

In geographical domains, the trends are not so obvious: in January there was an increase in numbers (a record +1023 in sumy.ua), but in February and March there was a noticeable decline.

Notably, a significant decline has been observed in geographic domains with free registration (if.ua, poltava.ua, kherson.ua, rv.ua), where "losses" amounted to up to a thousand domains per month. Meanwhile, most paid geographic domains are showing steady, if not record-breaking, growth.

The domain dnepropetrovsk.ua/dp.ua, due to the specifics of the financial model adopted in it (the billing month is January), falls out of the general picture.

Registration growth rates in the Top 5 second-level domains

In absolute terms, the change in the number of names in the Top 10 domains:

Thematic domain com.ua

The com.ua domain remains the leader in terms of number of domains and absolute growth rates. By the end of March, it had 210,893 domains (an average growth of 3,500 names per month).

The growth rate of .COM.UA registrations

The renewal rate of names in the com.ua domain for the first quarter was 83.8% (in the first quarter of last year - 72%).

Among the com.ua domains registered in the first quarter, the share of individual registrants was 37%.

Geographic domain kiev.ua

In the first quarter of 2011, compared to the same period in 2010, the domain of the year, kiev.ua, significantly improved its domain name renewal rate. The average annual rate for this rate in 2010 was 73%, and for the first quarter of 2010, it was 60%. In the first quarter of 2011, the renewal rate for kiev.ua was 81.9%. Renewal rates are an important factor reflecting consumer trust in a domain. The fact that kiev.ua has reached an 80% renewal rate demonstrates the domain's stability.

Among the registrants who were delegated kiev.ua domains in the first quarter, the percentage of individuals was 28.9.

IDN domains

The official start of domain registration in Cyrillic took place on October 19, 2010, although some public domains had already started working with IDNs.

As of the end of March 2011, there were 12,936 Cyrillic domains in public domains, representing 3.71% of all third-level domains. If we assume a 10% penetration rate for IDNs, the IDN market has significant potential and is poised for continued growth.

The largest contributors to the growth of IDN domains in March 2011 were com.ua with 396 domains, in.ua with 393, and kiev.ua with 198. While the success of com.ua and kiev.ua was predictable, in.ua experienced an unexpected surge in IDN registrations: Cyrillic domains accounted for 41% of the March growth in the in.ua domain.

IDN domain growth in March 2011

Strokes to the portrait of IDN

The average length of a delegated Cyrillic domain name is 8.6 characters. The longest names are registered for Ukrainian artists:

• 32 symbols - paintings by contemporary artists of Crimea.com.ua
• 37 - paintings by Ukrainian artists of the 20th century.com.ua
• 43 - paintings by folk and distinguished artists of Ukraine.com.ua

I can't say for sure, but especially with the "big" names, an interesting conclusion emerges. IDN registration is gaining popularity as a way to express a more comprehensive offer within the domain name: "pool equipment," "English learning," "biometric passport," and so on. Perhaps the time is not far off when Cyrillic domain names will incorporate advertising slogans like "buy-ukrainian" or "got-sick-stay-at-home."

Hostmaster