Verisign is reporting that the number of .Com domain names in the Domain Name Base have fallen below 128 Million.
Back in September of this year we reported the number of .com domain name had broken through the 128 million mark for the first time.
For the record, Verisign defines the Domain Name Base “is the active zone plus the number of domain names that are registered but not configured for use in the respective Top-Level Domain zone file plus the number of domain names that are in a client or server hold status.”
As Verisign has warned in earnings calls, there was a huge increase in .Com registrations in the 4th Quarter of last year especially numeric domain names and those domain name with random letters, that were registered mostly by those in China. Other domain name investors in the rest of the world also jumped into those type of domain registrations to sell to domain investors in China. The renewal rate on those domain name were expected to be lower than the normal .com registrations rate.
It one of the rare period of times that the number of .com domain registrations have actually dropped.
We will have better numbers when Verisign publishes their Domain Name Report for the 4Q of 2016 in 2017.
