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Marketplace Stability

The Marketplace Stability category of the Domain Name Marketplace Indicators (DNMI) tracks whether registries and registrars consistently deliver against their contractual obligations without causing harm to registrants. It is measured through a single dimension:

  • Contractual Compliance (MS1): Examines the volume of registrant complaints filed against registries and registrars, and the length of domain registration periods as an indicator of registrant confidence and service provider compliance.

The following indicators are actively updated on an annual basis.

ID

Dataset Name

Dataset File

MS 1.1

Total number of gTLD registry operator and gTLD registrar related complaints

MS_1-1.csv

MS 1.4

Mean registration period for domains (by gTLD category)

MS_1-4.csv

Archived Indicators

The following indicators were part of the original Version 1.0 schema but are no longer actively maintained. Historical data remains available for reference.

ID

Dataset Name

Dataset File

MS 1.2

Number of gTLD registry operator and gTLD registrar related complaints (1) closed (2) closed before 1st notice (3) 1st notice sent (4) 2nd notice sent and (5) 3rd notice sent

MS_1-2.csv

MS 1.3

Number of formal enforcement notices sent to registry operators and registrars

MS_1-3.csv
Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."