Re: [wg-c] .com vs. ccTLDs in Europe

[Milton Mueller <mueller@syr.edu>]

Looming at similar statistics a few months ago, I came up with the estimate
that com has 25% of the domain name registrations in the UK, about 10% in
Germany, and slightly over 50% in France. (France has no one but itself to
blame for NSI's market share, in my opinion, because until very recently it
tried to impose an arcane SLD structure on registrants and adopted very
restrictive policies.) In general, although we lack the statistical data to
prove it, I suspect that there is a positive correlation between the market
share of the NSI gTLDs and the restrictiveness of a ccTLD's policies.
--MM

Jonathan Weinberg wrote:

>         Prodded by Tony off-line, I tried actually doing some research on
> the relative dominance of .com and the ccTLDs outside the US.  This is an
> area in which my lack of technical expertise is painfully obvious, so I'm
> posting what I think I learned to the list as a reality check.
> <http://www.nic.fr/Statistiques/auto/Com/> appears to indicate that there
> were 263,184 .com SLDs in Europe, and 37,403 .com SLDs in France, as of
> 10/99.  <http://www.nic.fr/Statistiques/auto/Europe/> appears to indicate
> that there were 886,036 total SLDs in Europe as of 3/99, and
> <http://www.nic.fr/Statistiques/fr.html> appears to indicate that there
> were 44,386 domains in .fr as of 8/99.  This seems to me to indicate that
> .com plays an important role in Europe, but not an overwhelming one.  Can
> somebody please let me know if I'm understanding these statistics
> incorrectly?
>
> Jon
>
> Jonathan Weinberg
> weinberg@msen.com