NSI Reports Sharp 3rd Quarter Domain Registrations Spike

Domain registrar Network Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: NSOL) reported today that registrations shot up sharply in the third quarter, with international registrations helping to fuel a growth that is expected to continue well into the next century.

NSI registered a record 1.3 million new “dot-com,” “dot-net,” and “dot-org” names, up from 1.2 million in the second quarter and up sharply from the 507,000 names it registered in the third quarter of 1998.

The Herndon, Virginia-based company said that international registrations — primarily from China, Australia, Japan and Hong Kong — totaled 406,000 for the quarter, up from 138,000 in the corresponding quarter last year. For the first nine months of this year, international registrations have accounted for roughly 30 percent of Network Solutions’ 3.4 million domain registrations.

Other Registrars Book Progress

The company also released figures showing that new domain registrars are starting to make inroads in what was a NSI monopoly by virtue of government contracts.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) handed out accreditations to five test-bed registrars in April. Since then, some 190,000 domain names have been booked through non-NSI registrars. A total of 17 registrars are currently operational.

Leading the pack is register.com, a subsidiary of the New York City-based Forman Interactive Group. The company has registered 154,000 names in its first full quarter, 84 percent of the non-NSI registrations.

“These numbers demonstrate that register.com is the leading player among all new registrars,” said CEO Richard Forman. “We also believe that competition will continue to grow this market. Besides being the second largest registrar of generic domain names, we’ve experienced significant growth in registering international country code domain names. We’re confident that register.com will continue to meet the ever changing needs of this growing market.”

By The Numbers

Register.com started registering domain names in the UK last August and quickly established itself as one of the largest in the region. The company was backed by a $7 million (US$) investment from office superstore chain Staples in May.

NSI also released third quarter figures today. The company booked revenues of $59.3 million, up 133 percent over the corresponding quarter last year. Its net revenue for nine months of this year stands at $144.9 million.