[council] Request for Data: Individual vs. Commercial Registration

[Ross Rader]

Today in the GAC/GNSO co-session, we heard a request for data about the 
number of gTLD registrations that are registered by commercial users 
versus those that are registered by individual users. Some quick work 
with Google shows that the ratio is roughly 7:3.

"...70 percent of domain registrations were attributed to the business 
segment and the remaining 30 percent to consumers. Compared to a similar 
study in 2005, the role of the consumer segment has increased from 25%. 
Registrars in the United States had a slightly higher percentage of 
business from the consumer segment than the international registrars, 30 
percent and 27 percent respectively."

- Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief, November 2006.

While I am certain that these numbers vary slightly from gTLD to gTLD, I 
think its fair to assume for our purposes that the ratio is similar, and 
that we can expect to see continued growth from the consumer segment in 
the coming years.

Ross Rader
Tucows
416.538.5492