Empirical Study on the dynamic of domain registrations

Dr. Thies Lindenthal on how cyberspace is no different from traditional cities in economic terms and the future of new TLDs

Sedo’s former Product Manager Dr. Thies Lindenthal published an empirical study which explores registration dynamics in the primary domain market. This study investigates whether the primary market for Internet domain names can be analyzed using standard urban economic theories.

The results show: the number of registered domain names has been increasing at a slower pace than the demand for domain space.

The introduction of new top level domains has the potential to serve some of the demand not met by the current domain extensions. Additionally, launching new top level domains will alleviate scarcity in web locations, but not fully overcome it.

The set of catchy keywords that appeal to humans is still bound by the way we process language, even if we had unlimited choice in top level domains.

Legend has it that Mark Twain advised to buy land, since “they have stopped making it”. Similarly, one can argue that investing into (top level) domains is a promising business venture, since we have stopped inventing new languages, at least at a large scale.


Read the full empirical study here!