Domain registration higher than ever due to pandemic

Online World
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Nominet has released an updated map of the Online World to reflect the changes it has seen in domain registration during the pandemic.

The company that oversees the .uk domain registry re-drew the map to reflect the relative size of the national registries. 

Nominet highlighted an increase of 5% or more in Domains under Management (DUM) for 109 Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs).  The rise is said to be due to businesses around the world moving online in response to lockdown restrictions, which prompted the increase in domain names that included words such as “delivery” and “online”.

 Domains online 

The domain world continued to grow and expand into new territories in 2020, with a new ccTLD also emerging. South Sudan launched .ss, which had been assigned to the country in January 2019. 

According to research from Growth Intelligence, in the UK alone, more than 85,000 businesses launched online stores or joined online marketplaces from April-July 2020.

Beyond the UK, of all the domain names on the internet, globally ccTLDs account for 33%. 

The other 67% is gTLDs, of which 47% are domain names ending in .com. Nominet reveals that the top five ccTLDs are: Tokelau, China, Germany, UK and the Netherlands.

Eleanor Bradley, MD of Nominet Registry said: “We know the world is not an equal place and, with some noticeable exceptions, this map visually underlines the gap between more mature digital economies and those where the growth is yet to come.

“Figures overall also show the impact of lockdown on established country codes, like .UK, which saw a spike in registrations as businesses without a strong digital presence saw the urgent need to focus online.”

Abigail Opiah
B2B Editor - Web hosting & Website builders

Abigail is a B2B Editor that specializes in web hosting and website builder news, features and reviews at TechRadar Pro. She has been a B2B journalist for more than five years covering a wide range of topics in the technology sector from colocation and cloud to data centers and telecommunications. As a B2B web hosting and website builder editor, Abigail also writes how-to guides and deals for the sector, keeping up to date with the latest trends in the hosting industry. Abigail is also extremely keen on commissioning contributed content from experts in the web hosting and website builder field.