Skip to main content
Resources

Robust Competition

The Robust Competition category of the Domain Name Marketplace Indicators (DNMI) tracks whether the domain name marketplace provides registrants with meaningful choice, including the ability to register domain names across languages and whether the marketplace remains open to new service providers.

Robust Competition comprises three dimensions:

  • Registrant Choice (RC1): Examines whether registrants can register domain names across languages using internationalized domain name (IDN) generic top-level domains (gTLDs).
  • Registrant Domain Adoption (RC2): Tracks overall registrant demand for domain names across top-level domain (TLD) categories.
  • Service Provider Ecosystem (RC3): Measures the openness of the TLD marketplace to new and existing registry operators, registrars, and back-end technology service providers.

The following indicators are actively updated on an annual basis.

ID

Dataset Name

Dataset File

RC 1b.4

Number and Percentage of distinct gTLD registrar entities with IDN gTLD domain registrations (by script)

RC_1b-4.csv

RC 2.1

Number of domains (by TLD category)

RC_2-1.csv

RC 2.2

Net change in number of domains (by TLD category)

RC_2-2.csv

RC 2.3

Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of number of domains (by TLD category)

RC_2-3.csv

RC 2.4

Domain name renewal to new registration ratio (by gTLD category)

RC_2-4.csv

RC 3.1

Number of distinct gTLD registry operator entities (Total and New)*

RC_3-1.csv

RC 3.2

Mean number of gTLD registries per distinct gTLD registry operator entity

RC_3-2.csv

RC 3.3

Number of distinct gTLD registrar entities (Total and New)

RC_3-3.csv

RC 3.4

Mean number of gTLD registrars per distinct gTLD registrar entity

RC_3-4.csv

RC 3.5

Number of distinct back-end technology service providers (Total and New)

RC_3-5.csv

* Tracking by distinct registry operators rather than TLDs captures an organizational rather than a technical measure of market participation.

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The following indicators were part of the original Version 1.0 schema but are no longer actively maintained.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

RC 1a.1

Number of domains by ICANN region in gTLDs and ccTLDs

RC_1a-1.csv

RC 1b.1

Number of IDN second-level domains in gTLDs and ccTLDs (by script)

RC_1b-1.csv

RC 1b.2

Net change in IDN second-level domains in gTLDs and ccTLDs (by script)

RC_1b-2.csv

RC 1b.3

Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of IDN second-level domains in gTLDs and ccTLDs (by script)

RC_1b-3.csv

RC 1c.1

Percentage of gTLD registry operator and registrar websites with domain name registration terms and conditions in multiple languages

RC_1c-1.csv

RC 1d.1

Percentage of gTLD registrar websites offering multiple payment methods for domain name registrations

RC_1d-1.csv

RC 2.5

Percentage of domain namespace attrition (by gTLD category)

RC_2-5.csv

RC 4.1

Number of gTLD registrars accredited and terminated (total and new)

RC_4-1.csv

RC 4.2

Number of gTLDs/RAs contracted and terminated (total/new)

RC_4-2.csv

RC 4.3

Percentage of distinct gTLD registrar entities with registrations (by gTLD category)

RC_4-3.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."