Got the news release here achived safely at DNF
.INFO Reaches 1 Million Registrations
GoDaddy registers .INFO's 1 millionth name
DUBLIN, IRELAND - 19 November 2002 - Afilias, a global provider of domain name registry services, announced Tuesday that its flagship product .INFO, has surpassed 1,000,000 registrations in just over one year of operation. The one millionth name, los-angeles-real-estate-search.info, was registered through GoDaddy Software, Inc., one of .INFO's leading registrars. This milestone cements .INFO's leadership of the new TLDs and solidly places it as the six-largest domain in the world.
"This milestone is of great importance both to Afilias and the global Internet community," said Hal Lubsen, Afilias Chief Executive Officer. "The significant market response to .INFO clearly demonstrates the importance of having a global home for information on the Internet and underscores the value in the expanding TLD market. Over 265,000 of these registrations are already live, dedicated Web sites, and .INFO addresses are even being used in ads, further illustrating .INFO's movement into the mainstream."
.INFO launched in September 2001, and was the first of seven new TLDs chosen by ICANN in November 2000 to relieve congestion in the top level domain space historically dominated by .COM. It achieved over half a million registrations in the first 90 days of operation and since then has continued to build on its business. The biggest sector of growth for .INFO has been in Europe which now accounts for 52% of .INFO's global registrations. Of all the new TLDs, .INFO also boasts the highest percentage of active sites -- close to 70% -- as well as the largest number of live, dedicated Web sites that encompass 27% of its registrations and approaches .COM's 35%.
"From the outset .INFO has maintained a solid and steady rate of growth," said Mason Cole, Publisher of State of the Domain (
www.sotd.info). ".INFO and the rest of the new TLDs have been a positive influence on the domain name industry overall and have added a dynamic new vehicle to fuel competition between registrars."
From the beginning, .INFO's registrations have been a dramatic counterpoint to the trends in .COM, .NET and .ORG, which have found their home in North American markets. The majority of .INFO registrations are from Europe at close to 52% with the next closest market being North America, which accounts for 39%. Asia-Pacific accounts for about 7% and Africa and Latin America account for 1% each. In addition, .INFO has bucked the trend of leading registrars -- with Germany's Schlund + Partner outpacing VeriSign for the number one registrar slot. GoDaddy remains fifth (and growing) for .INFO business, and it is also fifth globally for combined .COM, .NET, .ORG, .BIZ, .INFO, and .NAME (according to
www.registrarstats.com).
"We are pleased to have registered .INFO's 1 millionth name and think that this milestone bodes well for its ultimate success," said Tim Ruiz of GoDaddy Software, Inc. ".INFO has been an asset to our business from the very beginning and has helped us accelerate through the ranks of the top ten registrars."
