Overall Domain Name Registrations at 76.9M Names

Global Registrations Rise Eight Percent Over Q4 2004; Growth Driven by Strong Global Economy, Growing Base of Internet Users, and online Advertising; China, Japan and South Korea Among Leaders in Worldwide Domain Registrations

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., June 7 -- VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) , the leading provider of intelligent infrastructure services for the Internet and telecommunications networks, today released the VeriSign(R) Domain Name Industry Brief for the first quarter of 2005, underscoring key industry data for worldwide domain name activity. In all, worldwide domain name registrations reached a record high of 76.9 million domain names, which represents eight percent growth over the fourth quarter of 2004 and a 22 percent increase over the first quarter of 2004. Also today, VeriSign released the Domain Name Industry Brief Regional Report for Asia highlighting Internet usage and connectivity trends in Asia's three fastest growing countries for Internet services -- China, Japan and South Korea.

Increasing Growth

According to the Domain Name Industry Brief, over 6.7 million new domain names were registered in all Top Level Domains (TLDs) during the first quarter of 2005, marking the highest increase in domain name growth to date. Key factors contributing to the growth of new domain name registrations include a strengthening global economy, increasing numbers of regular Internet users and the continued growth in online advertising.

During the first quarter of 2005, an average of 1.6 million new .com and .net registrations were added per month, representing a 19 percent increase over fourth quarter 2004.

Increasing Quality and Usage
Continuing trends in the overall quality of the domain name base include:

-- Renewal rates for .com and .net: At 75 percent during the first
quarter of 2005, renewal rates remain near historic highs. This upward
trend in renewal rates began in 2003 and continues to signal strength
in the overall domain name registration industry.

-- Growth opportunities: Bundled product and services continue to drive
growth. In the first quarter of 2005, Domain name registrars and
resellers created more packages for registrants looking to establish
their Web presence quickly and easily. Additionally, an increasing
number of registrars and resellers are using traditional advertising
(including radio and television advertising) to drive registration
growth.

"Historically, an indicator of the health and growth of the Internet has been the number of domain names registered and renewed," said Raynor Dahlquist, vice president of VeriSign's Naming Services. "Given VeriSign's role as operator of the .com and .net infrastructure, we are uniquely positioned to see the trends and factors driving domain name growth, and ultimately, Internet growth."

Trends in Top Level Domain Composition

.Com accounts for 47 percent of all domain name registrations; country code Top Level Domain names (ccTLDs) (domain names ending in country codes such as .de for Germany, .uk for United Kingdom, and .jp for Japan) account for 35 percent of domain name registrations. Other Generic Top Level Domain Names (gTLDs), such as .org, .biz, .info and .name collectively account for 11 percent of all domain name registration; and .net accounts for seven percent of all domain name registration.

Far East Driving Growth: China, Japan and South Korea Lead Growth in Asia

Overall, by the end of 2007 it's estimated that approximately 1.35 billion people will be connected to the Internet. While global Internet usage is on the rise, growth in Asia remains particularly strong -- specifically, within China, Japan and South Korea. Even though China already has approximately 90 million Internet users, that number represents only seven to eight percent of China's overall population of 1.28 billion people. Just since January of 2005, more than five million new people in China have become frequent users of the Internet. By the close of this year in Japan, 57 percent of the country's 127.6 million people are expected to be online -- a ten million increase in users from 2003. And in South Korea, one of the world's most advanced populations in terms of the number of regular Internet users, 31.67 (approximately 74 percent) million people out of the total population of 42.76 million are considered regular Internet users.

Among key factors spurring domain name registration growth in China, Japan and South Korea are stable growth in technology-focused employment, increasing use of mobile devices for Internet access, and increasing penetration of broadband Internet access. Though the United States ranks first among the world's countries in the overall number of broadband users (34 million), China, Japan, and South Korea rank second, third, and fourth, respectively with 23 million, 17 million, and 11.5 million broadband users. At its current growth rate, China's broadband users will come close to equaling the number of broadband users in the United States.

VeriSign publishes the Domain Name Industry Brief to provide Internet users throughout the world with significant statistical and analytical research on the domain name industry and the Internet as a whole. Copies of this quarter's Domain Name Industry Brief and Domain Name Industry Brief Regional Report: Asia-China, Japan and South Korea, as well as previous reports in the series, may be obtained at www.verisign.com/domainbrief.

China forces Web site registrations

By RAY PREGEANT
WASHINGTON, June 7 (UPI) -- Chinese authorities have forced the operators of all Web sites operating within the country to register with the government, including bloggers.

The Chinese Ministry of Information announced last March it would require registration beginning in June in order to prevent "unhealthy" or fraudulent activities. Such activities include publishing anti-government or dissident information, the ministry said on its Web site, www.mii.gov.cn/mii.

"If you have not registered by June, then your Web site could be ordered shut down," the Web site said. The new regulations encompass all public-domain Internet access, including personal, commercial and government sites. According to the Ministry, over 74 percent of Chinese Web sites have been registered.

The Web site and blog-registration campaign is part of a wider initiative commonly known among the Internet savvy as "The Great Firewall of China," a term coined by reporter Charles R. Smith that implies China uses tactics to avert the free exchange of electronic information.

Official statistics posted by the Information Ministry indicate the number of Internet users in China has grown phenomenally in the past few years -- from 59.1 million to the current 120 million -- though still only about 10 percent of the population, estimated at 1.3 billion.

"(Internet use) is exploding in China and (the Chinese government is) adapting at tremendously rapid rates," Milton Mueller, a professor of information studies at Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y., told United Press International.

Despite China's rising number of online users and the challenges they present to the government's efforts, censorship has prevailed and flourished, according to reports from the OpenNet Initiative, a watchdog group and advocate for free exchange on the Internet. The initiative is a collaborative effort of Harvard University, the University of Toronto and Cambridge University that tackled Chinese Internet censorship in a report published last April entitled, "Internet Filtering in China in 2004-2005."

More than a dozen different agencies monitor Internet activities in China, and Amnesty International estimates that up to 30,000 Internet police are working to filter Web traffic flowing through local service providers. More specific information about such activities has been difficult to obtain, according to the OpenNet Initiative

The Xinhua News Agency reported that since 1995 the Chinese government has policed online users with methods such as closing Internet cafes, blocking e-mails, granting limited access to Internet portals, banning Web sites deemed politically offensive and restricting search engines.

"There is a large undetermined number of Internet police that monitor chat rooms, discussion forums and Web content," Derek Bambauer, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and part of the OpenNet Initiative, told UPI.

A recent story in the Financial Times in London explained that most Internet traffic in and out of China is sent through a backbone of routers located in a few major cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, making filtration of e-content easier.

"China's legal enforcement measures concentrate primarily on the creation and dissemination of content rather than its retrieval," John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center, said in a statement.

The Chinese government uses domain-name-system hijacking, a method by which users are rerouted from an original Web address to an alternate page or Web site. Last August, for example, Berkman Center researchers began testing Google's accessibility through real-time observation of locations throughout China. They found that users accessing the Web site were rerouted to other Web addresses with a search format similar to Google's. Chinese officials re-established accessibility the following month, however.

Although China clearly is attempting to filter information, Bambauer said he thinks there may be too much of an assumption that all filtration is the result of government intervention.

"China is very open," he said, "but officially almost always silent on its blocking of Internet sites. When it is silent, it makes the state seem more powerful and there is a tendency to take any problem with access as a result of government filtering."

China's issues with censorship span beyond the country's borders. Chinese ISPs also provide service to outlying countries such as Vietnam, North Korea, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Palfrey said he thinks the Chinese Internet squeeze could have wide-ranging global consequences. "The ramifications of this censorship regime should be of concern to anyone who believes in participatory democracy -- online and offline," Palfrey said in a statement.

"China's growing Internet population ... will soon overtake the United States as the single largest national group of Internet users. How the Chinese government restricts its citizens' online interactions is significantly altering the global Internet landscape," Palfrey's statement continued.

China's Internet users are at risk for detention, torture, and even execution depending on the nature and severity of offenses, Amnesty International wrote in a news release in late 2002. The Chinese government sentenced Li Dawei, a former Chinese police officer, to 11 years in prison for downloading articles from Chinese democracy Web sites abroad, the organization reported.

Dawei eventually was released earlier this year.

Two other prisoners who were detained for Internet-related offenses died in custody, apparently due to ill treatment or at the hands of police, Amnesty International reported.

China's future in maintaining its current stranglehold on its Internet community has yet to be determined. As Internet technologies expand -- along with China's Internet population -- officials seem willing to adapt to changes that would allow continued censorship.

Bambauer said he thinks expanding technologies will keep the Chinese government on its toes.

"There is an arms race in China between technologies and government measures," he said. "Based on the extraordinary level of attention that (the Chinese government has) put into the Internet filtering system, it is a priority and one they will continue to work on."

Ray Pregeant is an intern for UPI Science News. E-mail: sciencemail@upi.com

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