The recent digital shift has also seen more new and existing businesses pivot online as they recognise the need for a digital presence. As a result, there was strong growth in registrations in the .au country-code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), particularly in the com.au namespace. In the past two quarters there was 31 percent growth in newly created domains from April to September this year compared to the same period last year.
This has lifted total active domain names in the .au ccTLD past 3.2 million – a record high – and demonstrates confidence in the .au ccTLD as Australia’s trusted, secure and reliable domain space.
.au registrations
New domains created
The past two quarters have seen a 31 percent growth in new domain names in the .au ccTLD compared to the same period in 2019. This increase equates to an additional 80,000 domain names registered in the COVID-19 period, predominantly by businesses in the com.au namespace.
Around 85 percent of the new com.au domain names registered are from businesses established before the pandemic (prior to 2020), with about one-third of these being businesses more than ten years old, which is an indication of the extent to which existing businesses pivoted to online to continue operating during COVID-19 restrictions.
Domains under management
In September 2020, total domains under management reached a record high of 3,214,384.Year on year, domains under management in the net.au and asn.au namespaces decreased. Domains under management in com.au, org.au and id.au were all slightly up in a year on year comparison for September. These are the major namespaces that are open to the general public.
Complaints and dispute resolution
