Public Interest Registry report shows continued growth for '.org' registrations

Public Interest Registry, the not-for-profit operator of the ‘.org’ generic top-level domain (gTLD), has published its regular bi-annual report for the second half of 2013, which shows steady growth throughout 2013 for ‘.org’ registrations.

The report revealed that there were 206,542 new ‘.org’ domain names registered during 2013 representing a rise of 2.6%, with a global total to date of more than 10.3 million registered ‘.org’ domain names, making ‘.org’ the third-largest gTLD after ‘.com’ and ‘.net’. The geographic representation of ‘.org’ registrations shows considerable growth outside of North America with 40% of registrations coming from overseas. Asia is heavily present, as China, Japan and India all appear in the top 10 countries for ‘.org’ registrations and make up 6% of the ‘.org’ market share. The top five countries (outside of the United States) remain unchanged and are the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Australia, and France.

Other findings included in the report include the following:

• The number of ‘.org’ domains under registration grew by 2.6% in 2013.
• When it comes to renewal, 85% of ‘.org’ registrants renew their domains for at least three years or more.
• The organisational make-up of the global ‘.org’ community remains diverse with the majority of registrants (20%) representing wiki and open source-related causes.
• Charities, schools, and recreational clubs and groups are all equally represented at 8% each. 

"Historically, ‘.org’ has been the trusted home for non-profits all over the world. While that credibility still resonates today, it’s clear that the composition of users who carry out their passions, their ideas, and their missions on the ‘.org’ domain is broadening," said Brian Cute, CEO of Public Interest Registry, "Now more than ever, we’re seeing that ‘.org’ is where action begins - for art and cultural institutions, clubs, sports teams, environmental and educational groups, as well as scientific, philosophic, and religious organisations. It is also the ideal domain to exercise social good or social entrepreneurship because ‘.org’ is for businesses that think differently."   

Public Interest Registry successfully applied for a number of new gTLDs that it intends to launch later this year. ‘.ngo’ and ‘.ong’ are both intended for non-governmental organisations (the latter being the translated abbreviation of ‘.ngo’ used in Romance languages such as Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese). In addition, Public Interest Registry will also launch three IDNs that are broadly equivalent to ‘.org’ in Hindi, Chinese and Russian.

David Taylor and Sean Kelly, Hogan Lovells LLP, Paris