closed Draft Final Report of the 2023 Africa Domain Name Industry Study

Outcome

In total, 14 Public Comments (12 on-time, 2 late submission) were submitted by a wide range of stakeholders across the community on the Draft Final Report of the 2023 Domain Name Industry Study (authored by Powersoft Africa and commissioned by ICANN org). Numerous constructive suggestions for improvement and clarification were provided by both organizations and individuals. All the Public Comments received will be carefully considered by the authors and ICANN org for inclusion in the final version of the report.

Using the invaluable multistakeholder process, which involves soliciting feedback from the global community to review and comment on the Draft Final Report, will significantly enrich the final version of the document. Ultimately, this report will serve as an important tool for the African Domain Name Industry community to enhance and foster its growth.

What We Received Input On

ICANN organization is seeking the community’s input on the draft final report of the 2023 Africa Domain Name Industry Study. The primary focus is to seek input on whether it appropriately addresses the following key objectives of the study:

• Does the study identify and define the strengths and weaknesses in Africa’s Domain Name System (DNS) industry ecosystem?
• Does the study develop recommendations to advance the industry and bring it closer to realizing its full potential?
• Does the study document relevant data and provide further analytical findings? This information is essential for ICANN and other stakeholders involved in the Africa namespace to develop a roadmap that outlines the specific needs and priorities for the development and growth of both country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) and generic top-level domains (gTLDs) in Africa.

Background

The study was commissioned by ICANN, as part of an initiative under the Coalition for Digital Africa, to assess the evolving DNS market and economic trends in Africa that describes and quantifies the overall potential of the domain name industry in the region, including:

• A considered study of areas of importance to the DNS marketplace, including governance and registry models, and the readiness of Universal Acceptance, Email Address Internationalization (EAI), and DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC).
• A regional or country-based breakdown of domain name registrations, including but not limited to ccTLD versus gTLD registrations; registrations by business, governments, non-government agencies, research and academic institutions, and individuals; percentage of active domains; and percentage of domains that use private (proxy) WHOIS.
• A description of the type of content hosted by these domains (e.g., commercial, governmental, educational) and percentage of the commercial sites that offer e-commerce services, including whether the content is hosted in-country or out of country.
• An assessment of the growth rate of domain name registrations for ccTLDs and gTLDs over the past five years (2016-2021), including Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), as well as the current markets of local and global ccTLD and gTLD registrars and resellers, to gain insight into registrant behavior.
• A better understanding of:
  • The user experience at local registrars and resellers (e.g., support for local language, payment gateway, IDN support – level of automation).
  • Factors that are holding back adoption of domain names (e.g., awareness, infrastructure, policy and/or regulation, payment gateway).
  • Current perceptions of Premium Domain Names and how to develop the DNS landscape.
• Validation of the economic potential for domain names sales (gTLDs and ccTLDs) in the next three to five years.
• Definition of the best practices that have made an impact on the growth of the domain name industry, including those related to business models, regulatory and governance mechanisms, and consumer awareness, among others.
• An assessment of the feasibility of establishing a DNS observatory, leading to a proposal for a consequent mechanism and implementation of a trial observatory for the DNS marketplace in Africa.