Yesterday Aus Registry release a study showing only 25% of all Australians own a domain name.
Aus registry which runs the .Au registry and also is the back end provider for many new gTLD’s commissioned the study of 10,000 Australians and used the results to encourage Australians to pay more attension to the domain name spac.
“What we as an industry need to focus on now is raising greater awareness and education about the benefits of domain name ownership, particularly for businesses,” said CEO of AusRegistry, Adrian Kinderist.”
Chris Disspain, the CEO of the domain name regulator, .au Domain Administration said the study reveals the value of the domain name’s brand.
“It’s heartening to now have tangible data demonstrating the regulation and registration policy reforms we implemented more than 10 years ago have helped build trust in the .au namespace,” he said.
“This is supported by the fact that Australian businesses rely on .au for their online presence. Almost 80% of respondents who own a .au domain name use it for business purposes.”
However tonight a non-domain publication in Australia picked up on the study and instead of encouraging more domain registrations entitled its story:
“Domain Names Fading Out of Fashion”
Ouch
Talk about unintended consequences .
“Internet domain names may be fading out of fashion with a new study revealing that the majority of Australians do not own a web address and do not see the need to invest in one either.” says the story that appeared in Businessspectator.com.au
“Of the 10,000 Australian polled for the study, 87% said they did not own or run a domain name.”
“Two thirds of those surveyed indicated that sites like Facebook and Tumblr serve as an adequate replacement for a presence on the web”.
“The survey – which was jointly conducted by AusRegistry, the .au Domain Administration and analyst firm Effective Measure – comes as a blow for the domain name industry, which is currently trying to promote the benefits of owning a web address amidst the release of new unique top level domain names.”
I’m sure Aus registry didn’t intend that findings of the survey to be used against people registering domain names.
The last thing Aus Registry needs or wants are people not to register domain names.
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