DSTI/ICCP/TISP(2004)2/FINAL
The differences in the magnitude of registrations under each gTLD and ccTLD are related to a
number of factors. For ccTLDs the historical factors involved include the pace of Internet development in
any given country. In addition, some ccTLDs are regarded as being more open in the conditions they apply
to the registration of domain names. For example,
.de
which is a ccTLD corresponding to Germany has a
relatively open policy for its registration. As a result,
.de
had 6.9 million registrations as of December 2003,
which is the largest number of registrations among OECD ccTLDs. On a per capita basis the highest
number of registrations under ccTLDs are in Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom and Switzerland
(
Figure 1
).
The position of countries is not an indicator of relative performance. Some ccTLDs limit registrations
to users with a presence in that country and limit the number of registrations per entity. These practices are
designed to limit speculation, cyber squatting or to give the ccTLD a distinctive national presence rather
than trying to maximise the number of registrations. Historically, some ccTLDs had policies that meant
users simply preferred gTLDs. Prior to 2002, for example, the
.us
domain did not have a structure as
attractive as gTLDs even though
.us
domains were available at a much lower price. On the other hand,
some registries charge prices that are uncompetitive in respect to those available for gTLDs. The monopoly
which registries have over registrations under each ccTLD, may be one reason for high prices. In most
OECD countries industry self regulation applies but in a small number of cases the communications
regulator plays a role.
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Some entities responsible for ccTLDs have introduced changes in recent years to promote the use of
their ccTLD. In the United States the
.us
domain opened up second level registration possibilities, in April
2002, enabling users to register names without reference to locality. In France, in May 2004, AFNIC
liberalised the requirements for obtaining a
.fr
domain name to encourage broader take up of that domain.
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Changes such as these should mean an increased ability for ccTLDs to compete against gTLDs in their
`home markets'.
Table 2. The number of domain name registrations of major gTLDs and ccTLDs of OECD countries
from 2000 to 2003
Total
major gTLDs
OECD ccTLDs
July 2000
24 183 837
17 476 025
6 707 812
July 2002
45 715 846
30 731 874
14 983 972
December 2003
56 588 888
36 851 022
19 737 866
Note
: Major gTLDs are .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .name
Source
: OECD, based on Registries Monthly Reports.
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