Nominet, the organization behind the .UK domain namespace, has released a new report that shows what everyone else has experienced in the domain industry since Covid-19 started: a massive increase in registrations as businesses move online.
In the report, which you can read here, April saw a record number of newly registered .UK domain names. They registered a mind-boggling 147, 706 new .UK domains names. To give some perspective on how insane this number is – they registered just 131,760 .UK names in March. That’s an 11% increase! In one month!
The report also says that at the beginning of March, they were averaging 10 registrations a day for virus/mask/health-related domains. By the end of March, it was closer to 200 new domains a day. Most of the new growth was in the realm of new businesses trying to cash in on the crisis or pass along health information. The rest were of businesses trying to get online for the first time.
We’ve seen similar numbers for .IE domain registrations since the Covid-19 crisis began. Growth has been strong with many new businesses finally taking the choice to come online – many for their own survival. Going online was no longer an ‘I’ll get around to it eventually’ task on the to-do list – it was critical for a business to continue operating and many business owners had plenty of free time during lock-down to finally get going. If you’re still on the fence, Blacknight can help you get online quickly and easily with shopBuilder or Build My Website.
Some more interesting data from the report:
- 20% of registrations were made by individuals, suggesting it was hobbies being taken online or new businesses being launched.
- Domains with ‘live’, ‘online,’ or ‘virtual’ in the names saw growth of 125%.
- 3,200 Covid related domains were placed on hold at registration, 1,200 passed due diligence
- 7 new domains have been suspended for criminal activity
Those last two numbers are very interesting as it shows that registries like Nominet are taking a very proactive approach to keeping users secure and will continue to do so.
Need a .UK domain name? Blacknight has you covered – we offer several .UK extensions with competitive pricing. Register your own .UK domain here.
Here are some great examples of .UK websites: