The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) published the findings from its ICANN Global Consumer Research Study, to measure aspects of consumer awareness, perceived consumer choice, experience and trust related to the current generic top-level domain (gTLD) landscape and the domain name system (DNS).
The global study surveyed 6,144 consumers aged 18+ representing Asia, Europe, Africa, North America and South America, and was administered in 18 languages and drawn from 24 countries.
Since the first new gTLD was delegated in October 2013, more than 630 new gTLDs have been delegated.
To gauge perceptions of the new gTLDs, the survey focused on the new gTLDs with the greatest number of registrations at the time the questions were developed in January 2015 – .EMAIL, .PHOTOGRAPHY, .LINK, .GURU, .REALTOR, .CLUB, .XYZ and a regionally relevant TLD, including internationalized domain names (IDNs).
Across all survey respondents, 46& reported awareness of at least one new gTLD, with 65% of those who are aware reporting they have also visited a new gTLD.
.EMAIL and .LINK led in awareness and visitation of new gTLDs.
The survey also examined consumer attitudes toward a subset of legacy TLDs introduced before 2012 – .COM, .NET, .ORG, .INFO, .BIZ, .MOBI, .PRO, .TEL, .ASIA and .COOP. Among these legacy gTLDs, three extensions (.COM, .NET and .ORG) lead awareness, with nearly 8 in 10 (79%) respondents, on average, reporting knowledge of these domains.
These TLDs also had relatively high visitation, with an average of 71% of respondents reporting they have visited one of those domains.
72 percent of respondents reported high levels of trust with entities that offer domain names. These high trust levels were linked to a perception that the industry will take precautions, give consumers what they think they’re getting, and screen companies or individuals who register for certain domain names.
90% claimed to trust the top three legacy TLDs (.COM, .NET, and .ORG), with the highest numbers found in North America, South America and Africa.
Consistent with other study findings, the results show trust among new gTLDs is lower than legacy TLDs, but growing: nearly one person in two (49%) on average reports that they trusted the sample of new gTLDs provided in the survey.
Abusive Internet behavior, including spam, malware, phishing, and cybersquatting remain an issue for Internet users.
At least three quarters of the respondents (74$) are familiar with malware, phishing or stolen credentials.
Cybersquatting is the only bad behavior that the majority are unfamiliar with — just over 1 in 3 (37%) report awareness.
When asked to describe new gTLDs, the most common words included: useful, informative, helpful, practical, interesting and innovative.
While people are increasingly using different devices to surf the web, 64% of respondents report using a search engine as their preferred way to find a website.
This is only slightly lower than Internet users report they did two to three years ago.
53% report that registering a domain is either “very easy” or “somewhat easy” and roughly half want the process of registering a website to be less complicated (50%), cheaper (55%) and quicker (49%).
ICANN is also working with Nielsen to conduct a global survey of domain name registrants and their perceived sense of trust and choice in the domain name space. Results from that study will be available later in 2015.
The Global Consumer Survey was conducted by Nielsen on behalf of ICANN.
The data collection and analysis phase of the survey took place in February 2-19, 2015, and the final report was delivered in April 2015.
A total of 6,144 consumers aged 18+ representing Asia, Europe, Africa, North America and South America were selected based on the number of hours per week spent on the Internet.
The survey was administered in 18 languages and drawn from 24 countries. In addition, significance testing was performed at a 95% confidence level throughout the survey.
For a complete methodological summary, including weighting variables, please contact karen.lentz@icann.org.
The research, conducted between February 2-19, 2015, was designed to create a meaningful baseline of data on consumer attitudes and will be followed by a second survey approximately one year later. This will also be a key input to a team set to be reviewing competition, consumer trust and consumer choice in the domain name system later this year.