Public Interest Registry Releases Report Revealing Continued Growth of the .ORG Domain

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Feb 27, 2013, 08:30 ET

"The Dashboard" Report Shows Increased Registrations in International Markets

RESTON, Va., Feb. 27, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Public Interest Registry – the not-for-profit operator of the .ORG domain – today released the results of its bi-annual domain name report, "The Dashboard," detailing the increased growth of .ORG from July to December. The report reveals that new .ORG registrations increased by 11.9 percent in the second half of 2012.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100628/ORGLOGO )

Other findings outlined in "The Dashboard" include the following:

The number of .ORG domains under registration (DUM) grew by 4.3 percent in 2012, growing 1.1 percent from July to December.
.ORG experienced a net gain of 416,301 registrations in 2012.
.ORG's DUM has more than doubled during the past seven years, increasing from 3.9 million in 2005 to more than 10.1 million in 2012.

"The Dashboard" also revealed strong growth outside of .ORG's core markets, North America and Europe. From 2010 to 2012, newly created .ORG domain names in Asia, Australia and the Pacific Region grew by 47 percent, followed by Latin America at 25 percent and Africa at 23 percent. Top five international markets for .ORG registrants by country include the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Australia, and France.

"We had a very successful 2012, which included reaching a remarkable milestone with the registration of our 10 millionth .ORG domain," said Brian Cute, CEO of Public Interest Registry, "The outlook for 2013 looks just as bright both domestically and abroad. As we are experiencing rapid growth in various countries, PIR is pursing initiatives to increase support for international markets, which includes introducing new domain options for communities worldwide."

Public Interest Registry details its advancements and preparations for the development of the .NGO and .ONG domains in "The Dashboard." Public Interest Registry's applications to manage the to-be-launched top-level domains are currently under evaluation with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), as are four other internationalized domains that translate into "organization," "org" or "structured organization" in Devanagari, Cyrillic and Chinese-simplified scripts.

The Dashboard also illustrates the diversity of .ORG registrants, annual renewal rates and growth compared to other domains. In addition, the registry discusses its commitment to enhancing Internet security and preserving the open Internet.

For more information on "The Dashboard" or to download a copy, please visit http://pir.org/news.

About Public Interest Registry

Public Interest Registry is a nonprofit corporation that operates the .ORG top-level domain -- the world's third largest "generic" top-level domain with more than 10 million domain names registered worldwide. As an advocate for collaboration, safety and security on the Internet, Public Interest Registry's mission is to empower the global noncommercial community to use the Internet more effectively, and to take a leadership position among Internet stakeholders on policy and other issues relating to the domain naming system. Public Interest Registry was founded by the Internet Society ( http://www.internetsociety.org ) in 2002 and is based in Reston, Virginia, USA.

SOURCE Public Interest Registry