BOMBSHELL revelation from the dark underbelly of the internet: VeriSign, the global dominator of critical infrastructure and domain name registry services, has just dropped a stunning report that will leave you wondering… is the internet even worth the hype anymore?
According to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief Quarterly Report from DNIB.com, the third quarter of 2024 saw a paltry 362.3 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains (TLDs). That’s a whopping 0.1 million less than the second quarter, folks! And if you’re thinking, “Wait, that’s just a tiny blip on the radar,” think again – domain name registrations are actually down 0.8% compared to Q2 2023.
But it gets even uglier: the .com and .net TLDs, the crown jewels of the internet, saw a combined total of 169.6 million domain name registrations at the end of Q3 2024 – a 0.6% decrease from Q2 2024 and a whopping 2.5% decrease from Q3 2023. That’s a staggering 4.4 million domain name registrations fewer, folks! As of September 30, 2024, the .com domain name base was a mere 156.7 million, and the .net domain name base was a paltry 12.9 million.
But wait, there’s more! New .com and .net domain name registrations plummeted 9.3 million in Q3 2024, down from 9.9 million in Q3 2023. What’s going on, internet? Did everyone just stop caring?
Meanwhile, country-code TLD (ccTLD) domain name registrations managed to eke out a 0.1 million increase, or less than 0.05%, compared to Q2 2024, but who’s counting? Year-over-year, ccTLDs are only up 1.4%, a paltry 2.0 million domain name registrations.
So, what’s really going on here? Is the internet just going out of style? Are we finally realizing that the internet was just a fleeting fad? Or is VeriSign just hiding something really, really dirty?
Get the full, salacious details on the methodology behind this torrid tale at here. But don’t say we didn’t warn you…
