THE DASHBOARD
JULY TO DECEMBER 2009
B I - A N N UA L D O M A I N N A M E R EP O RT O N .O RG, T H E P U B LI C I N T ER EST R EG IST RY W W W.PI R.O RG In the second half of 2009, the Public Interest Registry (PIR) continued
to build on the growth momentum the generic Top Level Domain established in the first half of the year. Overall, the .ORG domain’s new domain registrations increased by a healthy 14 percent, while its number of domains under registration grew by 3.5 percent. Credit for this sustained progress can be ascribed in part to the .ORG domain’s position as the most trusted gTLD on the Internet—a position substantiated by the results of a newly published brand survey in which more than 50 percent of the 10,000 Internet users who participated indicated that the content provided on .ORG sites is informative; moreover, respondents overwhelmingly regarded .ORG registrants’ sites as international in perspective, valuable, and trustworthy. These brand attributes are the direct result of PIR’s core mission to protect the .ORG domain space by establishing new benchmarks for Internet security and unity.
The current report presents quantitative data and qualitative developments from the second half of the year—including the latest brand survey, which has been attached at the end of the report—that illustrate the economic resilience of the .ORG domain. The global recession affected many industries worldwide in 2009, but the Internet industry as a whole experienced a healthy 8 percent gain in new domain registrations over 2008. This expansion included the addition of 47 million new websites to the Internet in 2009, bringing the total number of sites to 234 million by the year’s end. For .ORG, the current total number of domains under management is almost at 8 million, an increase of 8.4 percent over 2008. Yet, despite this success, PIR remains committed to its principal mission: the overarching advancement of the Internet through bolstered online security, openness, and stability, as well as through the ongoing cultivation of larger, more engaged communities.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Total Websites for 2009
As of December 2009, there were 234 million websites. 47 million new ones were added in 2009.
[Source: Internet World Stats]
.ORG CATEGORIES
BY CONTENT DENSITY
While the .ORG domain is popularly associated with non-profit organizations, which certainly form an important component of its constituency, this breakdown confirms that non-profits comprise a minority of the sites. In fact, the .ORG community is comprised of diverse sites related to businesses, organizations and individuals, mostly engaged in non-commercial activities. With the rise of social media and trends in user behavior such as blogs, self-publishing, community sites, and wikis, .ORG remains the preferred choice.
JULY. 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 7. 0 6 7. 36 7.73 7. 98 DEC
GROWTH & COMPOSITION
The 7.98 million organizations that registered with the domain by December of this year represent a 3.5 percent increase in the second half of 2009.
ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION
2008 2009 E N VIR ON M EN TAL: 6% CHA R ITY:2% CLUBS &GR OUPS :2% SC HO OL S: 10%
SPORTS & TEAMS: 15%
ART S & CU LTU RE: 18 % R ELIG IO US:5% HE AL THC AR E: 5% WIK I & O PEN SOUR CE: 23% ASSOCIAT ION S: 14% H EA LT HC ARE: 4% WIKI & OP EN S OURC E 13 % AR TS & CULTURE: 17% S P O RTS & T EAM S:18 % ENVIRONM ENT AL: 20 % RELIGIOUS: 4% SCHO OLS: 6% C H AR IT Y: 3% CLUBS & G ROUP S: 6% ASSO C IA TI O N S: 9 %
1st half 2009
2nd half 2009
Source: PIR (These charts depict highlighted categories as indexed by search engines only. They do not reflect the entire composition of .ORG registrations.)
B I - A N N UA L D O M A I N N A M E R EP O RT O N .O RG, T H E P U B LI C I N T ER EST R EG IST RY W W W.PI R.O RG
For 2009, .ORG, The Public Interest Registry, was awarded the WebAward, for Outstanding Achievement in Web Development for the Technology Standard of Excellence. Named one of SmartCEO's Future50 companies, for being one of the fastest growing company in DC Metro area. Additionally, the company won the 2009 PR News NonProfit PR Awards for Marketing.
Securing the Future
In early June of 2009, PIR signed the .ORG zone with Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC). Since then, many top level domain name registries (TLDs), such as .COM, .NET, .EDU, and .BIZ., have announced their intention to do the same in the second half of the year. These announcements represent a critical step in the upgrade of Internet security and stability for Internet users.
ORG INITIATIVES & INNOVATIONS
Protecting the .ORG Community
Through the Registry Internet Safety Group (RISG), PIR continues to facilitate and participate in dialogue and collaboration aimed at creating and adopting best practices to shield its registrants from unwanted commercial, phishing, and fraudulent email messages that could lead to identity-theft.
Preventing Abuse
On implementing the Domain Name Anti-Abuse Policy in early 2009, PIR began actively reporting suspected phish to its registrars, helping them to alert their registrants about compromised phishing domains. The impact of this initiative was dramatic: .ORG’s “phishing uptimes immediately dropped by a third,” according to the Anti-phishing Working Group (APWG). The Anti-Abuse Policy also enforces the domain’s zero-tolerance stance against such abuses as illegal or fraudulent activities, spam, child pornography, pharming, and willful distribution of malware.
.ORGs WINS THREE MAJOR AWARDS IN 2009
2008 7,800,000 7,600,000 7,400,000 7,200,000 7,000,000 6,800,000 6,600,000 6,400,000 6,200,000 6,000,000 2009 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 60.2% Growth
The following figures detail the .ORG domain’s growth from several key perspectives, including year-to-year new registration numbers, year-to-year registration renewals, and growth percentage relative to other gTLDs.
ORG GROWTH & COMPOSITION
RENEWAL RATE
Similar to the first half, the blended rate of organizations renewing their .ORG domains for one, two, and three years averaged 73.7 percent in the second half of 2009.
(SOURCE: PIR)
.ORG DOMAIN INCREASES
The number of .ORG domains under management increased a vigorous 3.5 percent between July 2008 and July 2009, rising from 7.7 million registrants to 7.9 million. This upsurge suggests a strong growth trend overall in 2009 for the Internet’s third largest gTLD. (SOURCE: PIR)
JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER
1YEAR 2YEARS 3+YEARS BLENDED Renewal Rate
8,000,000
73.2% 85.6%
B I - A N N UA L D O M A I N N A M E R EP O RT O N .O RG, T H E P U B LI C I N T ER EST R EG IST RY W W W.PI R.O RG 11.2% 10.0% 8.0% 6.0% 4.0% 2.0% 0.0% -2.0% -1.7% 3.6% 5.3% 2.7% 3.1%
GLOBAL REACH
JULY - DECEMBER 2009
The percentage growth rate of .ORG registrants was 3.5 percent, a level consistent with the two largest gTLDs, .COM and .NET, which posted similar results.
(Source: Zooknic Reports)
FIRST HALF 2009
Organizations within the .ORG community not only encompass a wide array of industries and special interests, but, increasingly, they reach around the globe. While North America (NA) remains the largest .ORG market, the domain’s presence and profile are on the rise in Europe (EU); Asia, Australia, and the Pacific (AP); Latin America and the Caribbean (LA); and Africa (AF). (SOURCE: PIR)
As the .ORG domain grows in size and scope, it also extends the geographical range of its registrants.
.biz .com .info .mobi .net .org
ASI A, A USTR ALIA , PAC IFIC: 9% LATIN AMERICA /CARIBB EA N: 2% NORTH AMERICA: 64% A FR IC A: 1% EU R OPE : 24 % 12.0%
UNITED STATES: 72% Abbreviations: DE: Germany UK: United Kingdom CA: Canada FR: France ES: Spain NL: Netherlands IT: Italy CN: China JP: Japan NL: 2% CN: 2% D E: 6% U K:5% CA : 4% F R:4% ES : 2% IT: 2% JP: 1%
WORLD MARKETS
The Top 10 markets by country for the .ORG domain are located in the three principal regions listed in the previous chart. (SOURCE: PIR)
The U.S. and European Union represent the -tration, though Canada also posts a strong .ORG presence. The Chinese and Japanese markets offer promising potential.
B I - A N N UA L D O M A I N N A M E R EP O RT O N .O RG, T H E P U B LI C I N T ER EST R EG IST RY W W W.PI R.O RG SOCIAL MEDIA
BY THE NUMBERS
126 million The number of blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse).
84% Percent of social network sites with more women than men.
27.3 million Number of tweets on Twitter per day (November, 2009) 57% Percentage of Twitter’s user base located in the United States.
350 million People on Facebook.
Security First
In 2009, 148,000 zombie computers (spammers, botnets, etc.) were created per day. In addition, over 2.6 million known malicious code threats existed at the start of 2009; by the end of the year, nearly 1 million new ones had been created. Providing a safe and secure environment for the Internet has become a daunting proposition. However, PIR has met this challenge through its unwavering commitment to lead the industry in adopting new Internet security measures that include Domain Name Security Extensions (DNSSEC) and the implementation of stringent anti-abuse policies.
DNSSEC Coalition
As the largest gTLD to sign its zone with DNSSEC in 2009, .ORG has again demonstrated its role as an industry thought leader. In CircleID, .ORG has a 53 percent Share of Voice (SOV) in DNSSEC discussions, meaning that the domain’s initiative to implement DNSSEC remains at the forefront of most discussions on CircleID. In 2010, .ORG will complete this critical process by allowing registrars to automatically sign individual domain names.
To learn more about the DNSSEC Industry Coalition and view latest news, visit www.dnsseccoalition.org.
Anti-Abuse Policy
According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), unique phishing reports reached a record 40,621 in August of 2009 - a 5.5 percent increase over the previous record established in September, 2007. APWG also notes, in the same report, that 48 percent of the 22 million computers scanned were infected with crimeware.
.ORG INITIATIVES
& INNOVATIONS
To combat this threat, .ORG is also working with the APWG, the National Cyber-Forensic and Training Alliance (NCFTA), and law enforcement authorities to develop data sharing and anti-phishing recommendations for the Registry Internet Safety Group (RISG). The APWG has been supportive of RISG as a complimentary organization and has already contributed significantly to RISG anti-phishing discussions. Law enforcement has been similarly supportive. In fact, a major international law enforcement group has asked PIR to speak to its membership about the RISG initiative.
Community Advocacy
In the second half of 2009, PIR intensified its social media outreach campaign by launching a new Facebook page, which accrued 500 fans in a matter of weeks. PIR seeks to leverage social media to engage the .ORG community in a meaningful discussion on topics ranging from cybersecurity to brand marketing the .ORG domain name.
PIR is a longtime champion of maintaining open access and architecture that allow anyone to review and retrieve critical information at any time. To become a fan of .ORG, please go to http://www.facebook.com/pir.org. In addition, PIR recognizes that the most the important goal for people who register a .ORG domain name is to connect with others in a secure domain space. Through its branding efforts over the years, the .ORG address has established itself as the most trusted domain extension. The following section, which contains the latest brand survey for .ORG conducted in the second half of 2009, summarizes some of the successes of these branding efforts.
INTERNET USERS
1.73 billion - Internet users worldwide (September 2009) 18% - Increase in Internet users since the previous year
738 million - Internet users in Asia 418 million - Internet users in Europe 252 million - Internet users in North America
179 million - Internet users in Latin America / Caribbean
67 million - Internet users in Africa
57 million - Internet users in the Middle East 20 million - Internet users in Oceania / Australia
[Source: Internet World Stats]
Desktop Crimeware Infections 3rdQ ‘09
2009 Brand Survey
2009 Brand Survey of the .ORG Domain
10,000+ Internet Worldwide Users, Marketing/Creative
Professionals Share Opinions
In year two (2009) of a four year study, .ORG once again conducted two comprehensive surveys using the power of social networks in both the consumer space and the marketing and creative
professional space to evaluate brand perception in select European and US markets. We assessed the advancement of the “brand attitude” from the base-line of year one to this year's results.
The key research topics included the following: • Awareness of .ORG domain sources
• Usage of .ORG sources and their application / need satisfied
• Alternative commercial sources • Satisfaction and attitudes • Value (equity) and trust ratings
• Familiarity with breath of .ORG sources, country, region, world
The top "3" choices as to who
would purchase a .ORG held no
surprises:
Non-profit and Charitable Organizations 87% Associations, Clubs,
and Groups 79% Health and Social
Care Services 48% Population (2009 Est.) Internet Users, Latest Data % Population Penetration % Usage World WORLD TOTAL 6,767,805,208 1,668,870,408 24.7 % 100.0 % United States 307,212,123 227,636,000 74.1 % 16.2% UnitedKingdom 61,113,205 48,755,000 79.8 % 3.5% Germany 82,329,758 55,221,183 67.1 % 4.0% Scandinavia 41,186,974 34,544,042 83.7% 2.5%
INTERNET USERS
AND POPULATION
STATISTICS 2009*
* Internet World Stats - Usage and Population Statistics
B I - A N N UA L D O M A I N N A M E R EP O RT O N .O RG, T H E P UB LI C I N T ER EST R EG IST RY PAGE 10 JULY - DECEMBER 2009
.biz .com .info .mobi .net .org
What the consumers say:
Although many people were familiar
with the top 3 TLD’s - .COM, .NET and .ORG
– there were still many domains that were
unfamiliar and most of the respondents did
not fully understand what any of the TLD’s
really stood for or who they targeted.
Our professional survey group consisted equally of male and female (49% / 51% respectively) respondent; over age 45 (56%) with almost equal representation from the webmaster and web designer community with input from these participants representing 11 targeted countries. The respondents had significant knowledge, 99%, 90% and 84% respectively, of the .com, .net and .org domains, combined with purchasing experience, 86%, 56% and 34% respectively, of .com, ,net and .org domains. Although the primary country of origin, 62% US, of our respondent group, these results were consistent with expectations for this community. The US participation was at 87% in 2008. There was an increase in
respondents from other countries with almost all having a slight rise over 2008.
Survey participants reported generally significant results for non-profit organization, 90%, when asked to select from a list what .org represented. The numbers for .com rose significantly from 2008, from 57% to 92% selecting the “commercial” choice on the list.
What the professionals say:
On the consumer side, there was a large shift from the 2008 study in terms of age groups. While in 2008 the predominate respondent was between the ages of 25-34, in 2009 we saw a leap in the over 55 category from less than 1% to 30%; with the younger age group dropping from 52% to 20%. This leads us to believe that more and more older users are looking at and participating in social networking groups and websites. Although most of the results between the 2 survey years remained consistent, there was one question that did stand-out. There was an increase in awareness of .ORG characteristics in a number of the categories with two stand-outs - up 15% from 2008 -
INFORMATIVE came in at 50% and
INTERNATIONAL rose 14% from 11% to 25%. VALUABLE INFORMATION and TRUSTWORTHY continued to be a strong characteristic at 30% and 26% respectively.
B I - A N N UA L D O M A I N N A M E R EP O RT O N .O RG, T H E P U B LI C I N T ER EST R EG IST RY W W W.PI R.O RG In the course of 2009, .ORG achieved an increase of 8.4 percent in its
total number of domain registrations, besting the industry standard by roughly half a percent point. Renewal rates remained strong at 73 percent, and the .ORG domain is well positioned to sustain this positive trend in 2010.
Although cybersecurity, privacy, and online fraud are persistent and critical concerns for the Internet, .ORG is doing its part to make the Internet a safer environment for all. Extraordinary measures have been taken to implement DNSSEC for .ORG, and the domain is now prepared to undertake the next phase of this plan, which will introduce an automated process that enables registrars to sign individual domain names.
We at the Public Interest Registry believe steadfastly in the community-minded mission that our name implies. We continue to improve and refine our anti-abuse policy, and we have dramatically decreased phishing uptimes by a third, as the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) has affirmed.
The company will soon launch its new website, transforming a resource that was once merely an electronic catalogue into a dynamic online dialog. As we enter this new decade, we at PIR look forward to pursuing this key initiative by creating broader channels of communication in order to better understand and share ideas, as we work together with the entire Internet community to build upon our current momentum to achieve even greater levels of growth.
