Registrar Connections

As part of our continual effort to support and develop the domain name business, VeriSign commissioned quantitative survey research in 2007 to update and expand understanding of the domain name market in Asia.

We shared the preliminary report’s results with our recent Asia Registrar Day attendees in Seoul and Beijing.

For businesses in Korea and China, the study also showed that the message that would resonate with them would be the benefits of domain name registrations. Your marketing strategy should include some of these reasons for registering a domain name: for establishing an online presence or expanding their business, as a revenue generator and it is critical to also let them know that registering a domain name to create an online presence is not a challenging project nor is it difficult or costly to maintain it. Help your customers and prospects to understand and leverage the Internet as an effective tool by providing them with marketing suggestions and ideas.

Domain Name Industry Brief to Be Published

Carrying on the tradition of strong first quarter results that we have seen for the past several years, the first quarter of 2007 ended with a total base of 128 million domain name registrations worldwide across all of the Top Level Domain Names (TLDs). This represents a 31 percent increase over the previous year and a six percent growth over the fourth quarter of 2006. The Country Code Top Level Domain Names (ccTLDs) grew at 33 percent year over year and five percent quarter over quarter. In terms of total registrations, .com remains the largest TLD in terms of its total base of registrations, with .de (Germany) and .net following. The .org TLD moved into the fourth slot, slightly ahead of .uk (United Kingdom).

The first quarter of 2007 ended with 45.7 ccTLDs, a 33 percent increase over the same quarter last year and a five percent increase over the fourth quarter 2006. Approximately two million new ccTLDs added in the first quarter which is about half of what was added in the record-breaking fourth quarter, but still 86 percent higher than the number of new registrations in the first quarter the year prior. Three of the top 20 ccTLDs grew at double digit growth rates including .ru (Russian Federation), .fr (France), and .kr (South Korea).

The first quarter ended with 69 million .com and .net domain names in the base. This represents a six percent increase in the first quarter 2007 compared to the fourth quarter 2006 and a 28 percent increase year over year. VeriSign registered approximately seven million new registrations for .com and .net domain names in the first quarter of 2007. This represented a 13 percent increase over the fourth quarter 2006 and a 15 percent increase over the first quarter 2005.

The Domain Name Industry Brief series highlights key trends in the industry, key performance indicators and growth opportunities. VeriSign will issue the latest report with full findings later this month. The report will be available at www.verisign.com/domainbrief.

Hold the Date!

We are pleased to announce the latest in our series of Registrar Day events, with VeriSign’s 2007 North America Registrar Day to be held in Washington, D.C. on July 10 (full day) and 11 (half day), 2007.

We will focus on the particular dynamics of the North American region with emphasis on the event’s main theme “Expanding Your Market.” VeriSign holds these events as a forum to share the latest data and information around the trends, research, products and services that are affecting our industry and how to maximize the opportunities that it provides. This event will also provide an important communication exchange between VeriSign and our registrar partners as we seek to continually enhance and improve our businesses within the domain name industry.

Behavioral Targeting

There are over 128 million domain name registrations worldwide including more than 70 million .com and .net domain name registrations. With more than 40 million registrations added in 2006 alone, the number of domain name registrations is at a record high. The advanced VeriSign Internet Profile Service combines multiple attributes, including industry classification data points to deliver domain name registration business information. This business information enables organizations to be better positioned to prepare for changes in the domain name registration space, target specific communities for marketing activities, as well as, seize new business opportunities.

The enhanced VeriSign Internet Profile Service beta release is expected for June 30.

Contact VeriSign today to learn how you can participate in the beta test of the enhanced Internet Profile Service. Send us an email at namingmarketing@verisign.com.

Update: Asia Registrar Day, April 2007

VeriSign’s Asia Registrar Day events in Seoul, Korea and Beijing, China were held on April 24 and 26, respectively.. The event in Seoul was attended by 45 participants representing 15 different Korea and Japan registrars or 84% of the total Korea/Japan registrars’ .com and .net registered domain names; while the event in Beijing was attended by registrars representing close to 70% of the total China registrars .com and .net registered domain names.

Attendees participated in a day-long meeting where they learned about .com and .net registration trends with special insight into growth by geographic region, IDN market opportunities, new product overviews and an in-depth preview of the upcoming .com/.net SRS 7.0 release. They also previewed the findings from VeriSign’s latest Asia market research study that had just been completed.

The results from the satisfaction survey showed that close to 90% of the attendees of both events rated the meeting as valuable. In fact, one attendee noted on his survey form that we presented a “Great show!”

We would like to thank those who took the time to participate in our Asia events and helped to make it a success. It is always our goal at these meetings to provide our registrar partners with topics and information they can use to improve their business. If you have any questions, or have suggested topics you would like to see covered in future events, please contact us at namingmarketing@verisign.com.

Special Thanks to Bruce Tonkin

A very significant period in the history of the ICANN GNSO is coming to a close. In early June, Bruce Tonkin’s term as chair of the GNSO Council will end as he takes the seat on the ICANN Board to which the Council elected him.

It will be very difficult to fill Bruce’s shoes in the GNSO. He has been an exemplary leader and has flawlessly maintained neutrality as chair while still effectively representing the Registrars Constituency. Bruce was chiefly responsible for keeping the Council on track during long deliberations on extremely divisive issues and is recognized for his leadership abilities, technical expertise, industry experience and relationship skills while investing extremely long hours of hard work to leave an imprint on the GNSO that will never be forgotten.

One specific example of Bruce’s exemplary service is his role as chair of the Introduction of New gTLDs PDP Committee that has been working for the past one and a half years and is now nearing completion of its work. Thanks to Bruce’s leadership, that PDP demonstrated that the GNSO can effectively tackle a very large challenge involving many competing interests and lots of policy issues to come up with a comprehensive package of recommendations that will benefit the community as a whole for many years to come.

Recognition of Bruce’s accomplishments may be best exemplified by the respect he generated not only in the GNSO but in the ICANN community as a whole. And fortunately all of us as members of that community will continue to benefit from his multitude of strengths as he serves as an ICANN Director.

Special thanks are due to Bruce for all of his contributions and to Melbourne IT for their willingness to allow him to serve not only over the past several years in the GNSO but going forward on the ICANN Board.

Staff Spotlight: Sarah Langstone

If you were trapped in an elevator with the Pope, President Sarkozy and Oprah Winfrey, what would you do or say? “I know I can always get a stimulating conversation going by talking about .tv. I’ll open with some compelling fact about the Internet such as; did you know at the end of 2006, there were more than a billion Internet users in the world? And how powerful it can be as a communication tool especially for people in their line of work. But it’s equally important that branding strategy for their online identity makes it rise above the noise and clutter of the World Wide Web. A .tv domain name gives you that unique brand because establishing your online presence makes you a ‘broadcaster’ with your own TV channel on the web. It’s such a natural fit, don’t you agree? I am a huge believer in .tv that when my daughter was born, I immediately registered her .tv name. Who knows, maybe she’ll be a TV star when she grows up! And if not, she can simply use it as her canvas to express herself! I’m sure grandma and grandpa would bookmark it right away!”

And that’s how my interview with Sarah Langstone began -- with her campaigning for .tv!

Sarah is a senior product manager with the Naming team of VeriSign’s Information Services business unit. She is responsible for many of the Naming team products, including .tv, .cc, infrastructure services and international business development. That’s why in spite of being based in the UK, she spends a lot of time in the Dulles, Virginia office and jet-sets to various events and client meetings all over Europe and the U.S.

Before joining VeriSign in 2001, Sarah worked as a product manager for a large software company, as sales and support manager for an Internet Service Provider and worked for a domain name registrar and hosting company where she was a key player in developing a ccTLD fulfillment platform.

Sarah was born and raised in Darlington, a small town in northern England known as the birthplace of the railway system. She lives with her husband and daughter and they all spend most of their time with her parents, sisters, in-laws and 10 nephews and nieces! But she’s quick to add that in spite of this wholesome setting and her nickname in middle school of “Sarah Goody Two Shoes” it would surprise us to know that she was the lead singer in a rock band during her much younger years. In fact, that’s how she met her husband – he was a groupie! She also supports her husband’s Iron Man Triathlon training activities and is herself training for the full 26-mile marathon later this year! She promises to post her performance results on her .tv channel on the Web.

Asked to describe her past six years at VeriSign, she smiled broadly and with that scrumptious English accent said, “It is a priceless experience because I work side by side with very talented people who are enthusiastic and collaborative. I am empowered to manage my products independently but have the full support of management and my colleagues. I love interacting with customers and working with them to ensure that our product offerings fit into their business needs. It’s a constant challenge and it’s exciting!”

Customer Service: FAQs

This section includes some recent questions handled by the Customer Service group. The topics for this issue include: INFO command on a domain, NameStore Production EPP and Registrar Tool login.

Answer: The GURID will be returned in the INFO command for account level identification of the Registrar. For example:

In the created by and updated by fields, the username who created the domain and updated it last will appear. For example:

Please note the created and updated by fields will only be returned for an INFO done by the Registrar of the domain. INFOs done by another Registrar will only return the account level identification noted above, the GURID.

Question: I can access Com/Net Production EPP, but can not connect to NameStore Production EPP? What is the cause?

Answer: After the migration on April 28, 2007, the credential for NameStore Production EPP has been in sync with Com/Net EPP Production Login. Please use the same login name and password that you use to access Com/Net EPP Production Environment.

If this does not work, please contact VeriSign Customer Service with your client IP address, Common Name, and Error Message.

Question: When I try to login to the Registrar Tool I receive the error "Login Failed. Please try again". What am I doing wrong?

Answer: After the account migration on April 28, 2007, you have a new login which is your COM/NET registrar tool login with "-admin" at the end. For example: old login was VeriSign, new login to the registrar tool is VeriSign-admin.

eMarketer: Broadband Worldwide: 2005-2011

There were approximately 251 million broadband households worldwide at the end of 2006. The United States and China are the two largest broadband markets in the world, with 54.6 million and 46.6 million broadband households, respectively; but sheer numbers do not paint a complete picture of global broadband development. Countries such as South Korea, Japan and, to a lesser extent, the United States are entering a new phase of broadband development as the market goes from high-speed Internet to very-high-speed Internet.

This process is well underway in South Korea and Japan, where broadband users are trading up from DSL (digital subscriber line) to higher- bandwidth technologies such as optical fiber.

With greater bandwidth available to the Internet user, this of course opens up greater opportunities for online content distribution, and eMarketer expects that this will be one of the key drivers for the global broadband market in the coming years.

eMarketer sees steady growth in the worldwide number of broadband connections continuing into the start of the next decade.

By 2011 there will be more than 497 million broadband households worldwide, up from 251.2 in 2006.

To read the full report, please contact Jennifer Moore at 212.763.6046 or send an email to jmoore@emarketer.com.

In the News

This section contains a selection of articles pertaining to the Domain Name Industry compiled by Information, Inc.

"Founding Father of the Internet Surveys His Domain"
Scripps Howard News Service (04/17/07) Swett, Clint
Vinton Cerf shared his thoughts on the Internet during a speech Monday at a gathering of TechCoire, a group of technology entrepreneurs, in Davis, Calif. One of the founding fathers of the Internet, Cerf said he is very surprised and pleased that people have been willing to put information online with no promise of compensation in return. "It's created the most democratic access to information we have ever seen," said Cerf, who helped develop software that serves as the foundation for transmitting email, movies, and everything else online. Cerf, currently Google's "chief Internet evangelist," acknowledged that spam, viruses, worms, fraud, and worthless content are problems, but added that society has addressed such issues, sometimes in other forms, in the past. He said mobile devices would be key to the future growth of the Internet, and that Internet-connected devices would be seamlessly linked in the years to come. Cerf, who is also chairman of ICANN, added that security and the transmission of data need to be improved.
http://reg.kitsapsun.com/bsun/web/loginForm?from=www.kitsapsun.com/bsun/bu_business/article/0,2403,BSUN_19060_5491067,00.html

"Analysis: Owning the Keys to the Internet"
United Press International (04/12/07) Waterman, Shaun
The U.S. government is moving ahead with its plans to create a new security system for the Domain Name System (DNS), despite concerns from international Internet management companies. The DNS directs Internet users to the sites they want to visit by translating URLs into numerical Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, but because the DNS was built with a relatively open structure, criminals can use techniques known as DNS "spoofing" or "poisoning" to create duplicate Web sites to steal information from users who think they are logging on to their bank or email accounts. The DNS Security Extensions Protocol (DNSSec) is intended to create instantaneous authentication of DNS information, eliminating the opportunity for DNS abuse and essentially creating a series of digital keys for the system. The question that many groups are asking is who should control the key for the DNS Root Zone, the part of the system that is above top-level domains such as .com and .org. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which is funding the development of a technical plan for implementing DNSSec, issued an initial draft in October that essentially narrowed potential Root Zone Key operators down to a government agency or a private contractor, though no specific organizations were listed. A new version of the draft specification for the DNSSec plan that incorporates input from experts could be ready by the end of this summer, says Douglas Maughan of the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate. Canadian Internet Registration Authority President Bernard Turcotte and others are concerned the U.S. would unilaterally implement DNSSec. "We want to ensure that whatever measures are implemented are well coordinated," Turcotte says. Maughan says the U.S. government is committed to using DNSSec within the .gov domain, but he says "it will take a lot more people to get involved" to globally deploy DNSSec.
http://www.upi.com/Security_Terrorism/Analysis/2007/04/12/analysis_owning_the_keys_to_the_internet/

"Biggest Threat to Internet Could Be a Massive Virtual Blackout"
National Journal's Technology Daily (04/05/07) Noyes, Andrew
A distributed denial of service attack presents the biggest danger to the Internet in the 21st century, according to ICANN's Susan Crawford. Speaking at a Hudson Institute briefing, Crawford said the Feb. 6 zombie attack on six root-zone servers called attention to the fact that such servers have little or no oversight. To reduce the risk of DDOS attacks, the number of zombie computers must be reduced, but "people are turning millions of PCs into weapons ... and we don't have a lot of data about what is happening," said Crawford. "Researchers are often operating in the dark." DHS has shown an inability to address this danger, she added. "They're trying, but many of their efforts lack timeframes for completion." Crawford does not believe legislation could prevent DDOS attacks, because Congress' reach "is too local for the networked age." The best solution would be to focus money and attention on potential global educational initiatives, perhaps through the founding of a multi-stakeholder body with a "new, friendly-acronym," she said. ICANN's power is overly based on contracts and is not wide enough to have the necessary impact, and the Internet Governance Forum is "highly political" and "not necessarily the best forum for a technical discussion of best practices," claimed Crawford. She named routing security as an important future consideration, because the ability of hackers to place false paths in a routing system to obtain packets or spur a DDOS attack increases as "routing tables" grow in size to meet the needs of IPv6.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0407/040507tdpm2.htm

"Domain Name Reseller Market Reaches $111 Million"
Cheap Web Hosting Directory (03/26/07)
Statistics from domain name research firm Zetetic show that the domain name aftermarket was worth nearly $111.38 million in 2006, with the sales generated by 17,974 domain name transactions. The average resale price for domain names increased 13 percent from 2005 to 2006, from $4,954 to $5,582, compared with just 10 percent growth from 2004 to 2005. There were five domains that sold for more than $1 million in 2006, compared with one in 2005. Commenting on the "record year," Zetetic analyst Keith Pieper said that most domain name owners continue to show "irrational exuberance" in the prices they are asking for domain names. "However, when the market is this robust, sellers can shoot high with some degree of confidence," he said. Pieper noted that just 0.7 percent of all domains go for $100,000 or more.

May 2007

In this issue:

Asia Market Research