AFNIC has published the fifth annual edition of its French Domain Name Industry Report, in partnership with Télécom Paris Sud, against a backdrop of stru

1. 2011 Issue
French Domain Name Industry Report
AFNIC - Télécom SudParis

2. 2011 Issue
French Domain Name
Industry Report

3. 2 OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 6
Why have a French Domain Name Industry Report? ....................................................... 6
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................................... 7
Growth in the process of slowing down, but still above the average for extensions ... 7
A dynamic .fr portfolio, in line with current events .......................................................... 8
Young urban holders ........................................................................................................... 9
On-going market concentration ...................................................................................... 10
A steadily growing resale market .................................................................................... 10
A namespace implementing Anycast, DNSSEC and IPv6 ............................................. 11
A living ecosystem ............................................................................................................ 12
Expected changes in France and worldwide ................................................................. 12
PART ONE: BACKGROUND .................................................................................................. 15
Chapter 1: the Internet in France ..................................................................................... 16
Internet users increasingly numerous and better equipped ................................................. 16
International comparisons .................................................................................................. 18
Chapter 2: Domain names worldwide ............................................................................. 20
Use of extensions in the world ........................................................................................... 20
Geographical breakdown of domain names ....................................................................... 23
Distribution of web servers and Internet hosts per extension .............................................. 23
Internationalized national extensions (IDN).......................................................................... 24
Chapter 3: Domain names in France ............................................................................... 26
Market share for extensions in France ................................................................................ 26
French market share worldwide ......................................................................................... 27
PART TWO: .FR DOMAIN NAMES ........................................................................................ 29
Chapter 4: Number of .fr domain names ........................................................................ 30
Number of .fr domain names ............................................................................................ 30
Private individuals and legal entities.................................................................................... 32
Renewal of .fr domain names............................................................................................. 33
Operations on .fr domain names ........................................................................................ 34
Chapter 5: Number of .fr domain names per holder ...................................................... 35
Individuals .......................................................................................................................... 35
Legal entities...................................................................................................................... 36
French Domain Name Industry Report – 2011 Issue

4. OVERVIEW 3
Chapter 6: Lexicographical structure of .fr domain names ......................................... 37
Length of .fr domain names ............................................................................................... 37
Hyphens and numbers in .fr domain names ...................................................................... 38
Terms used in .fr domain names ....................................................................................... 39
Combinations registered as .fr domain names .................................................................. 42
Searches using various lists of terms ................................................................................. 42
French words registered as .fr domain names .................................................................... 43
Proportion of French first names and surnames registered as .fr domain names ................ 44
Names of French municipalities registered as .fr domain names ......................................... 44
Business names and trademarks registered as .fr domain names ...................................... 45
PART THREE: HOLDERS....................................................................................................... 47
Chapter 7: The location of private individuals who hold .fr domain names ................ 48
Opening remarks ............................................................................................................... 48
Number of .fr domain names registered by private individuals ............................................ 49
Number of .fr domain names registered by private individuals per 1,000 inhabitants .......... 50
Growth rate over one year ................................................................................................. 53
Chapter 8: The location of legal entities that hold .fr domain names .......................... 55
Number of .fr domain names registered by legal entities .................................................... 55
Number of .fr domain names registered by legal entities per 1,000 companies .................. 56
Growth rate over one year ................................................................................................. 59
Chapter 9: Location of private individuals and legal entities holding .fr
domain names ................................................................................................................... 61
Total number of .fr domain names (private individuals and legal entities) ............................. 61
Changes over the last year ................................................................................................ 64
Location of .fr domain names per municipality ................................................................... 64
Chapter 10: Ages of individual holders of .fr domain names ........................................ 65
Age pyramid of individual holders of .fr domain names ....................................................... 65
Changes in the ages of individual holders of .fr domain names........................................... 67
PART FOUR: REGISTRARS ................................................................................................... 69
Chapter 11: Registrars of .fr domain names ................................................................. 70
Number of registrars of .fr domain names .......................................................................... 70
Location of registrars of .fr domain names ......................................................................... 71
Chapter 12: Services and prices offered by registrars .................................................. 75
Services offered by registrars ............................................................................................. 75
Rates charged by registrars ............................................................................................... 76
Chapter 13: Analysis of the registrar market .................................................................. 78
Market for registrars of .fr domain names ........................................................................... 78
Changes in the market for registrars of .fr domain names .................................................. 83
The market for ICANN-accredited registrars....................................................................... 85

5. 4 OVERVIEW
Chapter 14: Analysis of the secondary market .............................................................. 88
The secondary domain name market worldwide (DN Journal.com) .................................... 88
The secondary domain name market worldwide (Sedo) .................................................... 89
Secondary market for .fr domain names (Sedo) ................................................................. 93
PART FIVE: TECHNOLOGIES ................................................................................................ 97
Chapter 15: DNS Servers .................................................................................................. 98
Number of DNS servers per .fr domain name..................................................................... 98
Number of .fr domain names per DNS server..................................................................... 98
Characteristics of the DNS servers for .fr domain names.................................................... 99
Requests received by authoritative DNS servers managed by AFNIC ................................. 99
Chapter 16: Use of IPv6 addresses ............................................................................... 102
Procedure used in searching for IPv6 addresses .............................................................. 102
IPv6-compatible .fr domain names................................................................................... 103
International comparisons ................................................................................................ 104
IPv4 exhaustion ............................................................................................................... 104
PART SIX: USES ................................................................................................................... 107
Chapter 17: Use of .fr domain names on the Web ....................................................... 108
Responses from Web servers associated with .fr domain names ..................................... 108
Types of website associated with .fr domain names ......................................................... 111
Chapter 18: AFNIC and the ecosystem of domain name stakeholders in France .... 113
Communities identified..................................................................................................... 113
The main lessons ............................................................................................................. 115
Chapter 19: Disputes over domain names in France ................................................... 116
Disputes over .fr domain names....................................................................................... 116
UDRP disputes handled by WIPO .................................................................................... 118
PART SEVEN: CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................... 123
Chapter 20: Market review and prospects.................................................................... 124
Review of the year ........................................................................................................... 124
Outlooks .......................................................................................................................... 125
ANNEXES ............................................................................................................................. 129
List of figures ................................................................................................................... 130
Table of tables ................................................................................................................. 132
Table of notes .................................................................................................................. 134
Glossary ........................................................................................................................... 136
French Domain Name Industry Report – 2011 Issue

7. 6 INTRODUCTION
This document is the 2011 issue of the French Domain Name Industry Report. It was drafted in
September 2011.
The statistics presented were obtained using various sources, including the retrieval of
non-confidential information from the AFNIC database, public information sites, etc. AFNIC would
like to thank all those who provided information useful for drafting this report.
This study was conducted as part of a research contract between AFNIC and Télécom SudParis,
from July to September 2011. Information obtained thereafter was not taken into account in this
version of the report.
Why have a French Domain Name Industry Report?
There are already various providers offering information on domain names, but these organizations
have a worldwide, generalist vision and cannot access the registries’ own data. In addition, they
usually do not undertake in-depth analysis of the various markets.
Since 2007, the AFNIC has undertaken the initiative of establishing an annual industry report on
French domain names, to be of benefit to market participants, as well as to the government and
Internet development agencies in France.
The overall aims of this industry report are therefore to:
• give a reliable picture of the market and its players,
• provide the keys for analysing the factors shaping the market and its trends,
• help promote understanding and recognition of this market and its special features among
the private and public sectors,
• identify the market’s strengths and weaknesses, putting forward recommendations for regis-
trars and/or the registry.
The aim is to produce a paper to be presented to the government and distributed to Internet
stakeholders and the general public.
French Domain Name Industry Report – 2011 Issue

8. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 7
Salient points concerning the .fr extension for 2010-2011
The .fr TLD turned 25 on 2 September 2011
A new legal framework resulting from the law of 22 March 2011
Two millionth .fr domain name registered on 18 April 2011
17% annual growth rate, i.e. 5 points more than the average for other national extensions
39.5% of .fr domain names filed by private individuals
A close correlation between the creation of .fr domain name and start-ups in France
Median end-user price steady at €12 excl. VAT/year, in line with other top level domains
Continuation of the market consolidation of domain name registrars
Growth above average for the .fr resale market and the highest rates
Continued deployment of DNSSEC with the software interface for registrars
40% of .fr domain names are IPv6-enabled for their DNS servers
Nearly one in every two names refers to a professional website, far in front of personal websites
Growth in the process of slowing down,
but still above the average for extensions
After a decline in 2009, the market dynamics of domain names worldwide have slightly stabilised:
in June 2011 all the extensions outside China posted an annual growth rate of 9% against 10%
in the previous year. While the level of overall growth has continued, it is far from the record highs
posted up until 2008 (20% per year or more). National extensions still retain the lead in terms of
growth, but the difference with generic extensions has been reduced to a few percent per year. The
.com generic extension now represents more than 95 million domain names registered worldwide.
Against this background, the .fr TLD retains a high absolute level of growth, of around 17% over one
year, i.e. five points higher than the average for national extensions. The slowdown is due both to
mechanical factors (the base of domain names already registered increases each year) and cyclical
factors (the .com extension has posted an upswing over the last year in terms of market share in
France). The French extension has increased by some 300,000 names a year since it was opened
to individuals in June 2006, and exceeded 2.1 million domain names in September 2011. It now
represents nearly one-third of all the domain names registered in France, behind the .com gTLD.

9. 8 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The slowdown, which is due to general economic conditions, is not inexorable however; indeed, the
.fr extension has a number of factors for future growth in its favour. For example, while the number
of domain names registered per capita has sharply increased in recent years (1.2 per thousand
in 2007 to 3.1 per thousand in 2011), is still considerably lower than other comparable countries
such as Germany (at around 18 per thousand). In addition, while France is better placed than the
European average in terms of high-speed internet connection for individuals and businesses, it is
still behind in terms of the creation of websites, indicating a persistent lack of awareness among
French companies about online communication compared with their counterparts (58 companies
out of 100). As a corollary, in 2011, only 2.6% of the generic domain names registered worldwide
were held by French entities.
The year 2010-2011 was also marked by the opening of internationalized domain names (IDN),
and in particular by the success of the Russian national extension .рф in Cyrillic characters, which
reached 850,000 names in June 2011, only a few months after its launch.
A dynamic .fr portfolio, in line with current events
The average length of .fr domain names is increasing year by year, standing in 2011 at
12.7 characters per name. Serving as a separator in increasingly long names, dashes are still
frequently used (37% of domain names) and constantly increasing in use.
The portfolio of .fr domain names is also in line with current events. Alongside terms such as
"france" and "paris" which are regularly placed at the head of the character strings forming domain
names, this year terms related to the insurance industry, and logically the years 2011 and 2012,
have appeared. Conversely, years gone by are less used in registered domain names.
Generic terms are also present in the portfolio for the French extension: 80% of the most frequently
used French words were recorded, a figure which has also increased by eight percentage
points since 2007. The same is true for almost all of the names of towns with more than 10,000
inhabitants (95%), although the ratio fell to 38% when all the French municipalities are included.
As for companies, 94 out of the top 100 firms in France and nearly 80% of the top 1,000 had
registered their .fr domain name in 2011. All of these figures are steadily increasing, although the
rise is measured as the years go by.
French Domain Name Industry Report – 2011 Issue

10. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 9
Young urban holders
In 2011, 39.5% of the holders of .fr domain names were individuals, and 60.5% were entities. Since
2006, in half of the cases the new names are registered by individuals, and the percentage of the
portfolio they hold is increasing year by year. In addition, the turnover of the .fr extension is around
80%, a very high figure compared with many of its counterparts.
The study of the location of domain names in France still reports a significant concentration in
departments with the greatest population density, for individuals and businesses alike. It also shows
a strong correlation between the number of .fr domain names registered in French regions and the
regional gross domestic product. Each year, Paris and the Hauts-de-Seine department are placed
at the top of the rankings, but others are gradually catching up, and many departments this year
have seen growth well above the national average (such as the Sarthe department for both types
of holders, or Reunion Island for the corporate market).
French nationals living abroad have been entitled to register .fr domain names since March 2010,
and in June 2011 held 0.5% of the portfolio of domain names in the individual segment. Located in
a hundred different countries, a quarter reside in Belgium, followed by Spain and Switzerland. With
regard to companies holding .fr domain names, 2% of them are located abroad, mainly in Germany,
the United States, and the United Kingdom.
The median age of individual holders rose five months between 2010 and 2011, and now stands
at 36 years and five months. This development, however, is largely due to the natural aging of the
population of registrants, and if demographic factors are excluded, the median age would actually
drop seven months. The younger age groups are still the growth drivers for the extension.
A study comparing the monthly creations of .fr domain names and the monthly creations of
companies in France reported a strong correlation between the two indicators. It thus appears
that a significant proportion of the new domain names are registered because of start-ups in the
national territory (including auto-entrepreneurs), the protection of their trade name preceding or
accompanying the legal constitution of their structure.

11. 10 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
On-going market concentration
The decrease in the number of registrars continued in 2011: there are now 770, of which 16%
are located abroad (mainly in the European Union). The number of foreign service providers also
rose over the year, contrasting with the general trend, perhaps in connection with the forthcoming
opening of the .fr TLD to Europe. In France, the registrars are still predominantly located in the large
urban areas, with Paris and the Hauts-de-Seine department in the lead, while thirteen departments
have none at all.
The study of the offers from the top 30 registrars of .fr domain names reported a very broad price
range, from €5 to €70 excluding VAT. The market segments targeted by each server provider
(general public, SME / VSE, major accounts, resellers), and the additional services that may be
included in the basic package would seem to substantiate the differences. The median price has
been stable since 2009 at €12 excl. VAT, and more than 80% of providers surveyed have not
changed their rates since last year. It should also be noted that registrars generally align the prices
for the main extensions (.fr and generic).
The market concentration of registrars of .fr domain names is continuing inexorably, on both the
individual segment and on the corporate sector, mainly to the benefit of the market leader this year
once again. The market remains "concentrated" for individuals, and has reached the "moderately
concentrated" level for the corporate sector.
Concentration is not specific to the .fr extension; it also concerns the market for ICANN-accredited
registrars of generic extensions. However, the global market appears to be slightly less concentrated
than the French extension, apart from the market leader which has become slightly more powerful.
In addition, more than half of the registrars are located in the United States, and on their own
manage 64% of the generic domain names in the world. On its behalf, France has 2% of the
ICANN-accredited providers for 1.9% of the gTLDs.
A steadily growing resale market
After a slowdown in 2009, the resale market for domain names resumed strong growth in 2010:
+12% in the number of transactions, average prices up 23% year on year and +39% in the financial
volume of exchanges. The "social.com" domain name attained the highest price in the first half of
2011, selling for $2.6 million. The prices for the top 100 domain names exchanged worldwide have
declined, however, over the year.
French Domain Name Industry Report – 2011 Issue

12. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 11
While the .com extension continues to be the most sought after, the .fr TLD is gaining ground
each year, posting growth rates well above the average for extensions (with an increase of 65% on
the value of sales in 2010). It remains the most expensive on the resale market, with an average
price in 2010 of €5,000 due to the exceptional price paid for "credit.fr" of some €600,000, and a
median price of approximately €1,000 in the first half of 2011. These figures demonstrate the vitality
of the resale market for the .fr extension which has taken off fast since 2008, reflecting a better
understanding of the intrinsic value of .fr domain names.
A namespace implementing Anycast, DNSSEC and IPv6
In 2011, the French namespace contained nearly 50,000 DNS servers, a figure that is constantly
growing from year to year. To ensure the highest quality of service and security in its DNS
infrastructure, AFNIC uses a comprehensive series of standard technologies and protocols.
It manages a set of authoritative DNS servers for the .fr namespace and uses partners for other
servers in order to improve the resilience of the extension. In addition, some of these servers use
Anycast technology, to improve the performance and security of the DNS infrastructure thanks to a
cloud of servers geographically distributed worldwide (a total of sixty servers for the extension). In
all, the servers managed directly by AFNIC received an average of 3000 DNS queries per second
during the first half of 2011.
In terms of security, 2010-2011 was also marked by the deployment of the DNSSEC protocol, to
authenticate DNS exchanges and avoid attacks such as cache poisoning. The French namespace
was signed in September 2010 and an interface allowing registrars to forward signature elements
of their customers’ domain names was opened in April 2011.
The share of .fr domain names that are IPv6-enabled has evolved considerably since last year:
nearly 40% of .fr domain names now support IPv6 for DNS and more than 8% for mail servers,
but only 2% for web servers. The development is a gradual one, however, the change taking place
when the main registrars implement IPv6 in their equipment. The French extension is ahead of
the Japanese .jp TLD for DNS servers and mail servers, but is behind as far as web servers are
concerned. Finally, the percentage of requests received by the authoritative servers for IPv6 in the
French namespace is also slightly up, standing at 1.5% this year. The overflow of the pool of IPv4
addresses reserved for Europe is currently scheduled for June 2012, and it is important that all the
market players concerned move forward together in implementing IPv6.

13. 12 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A living ecosystem
A study carried out by the Linkfuence Company at the request of AFNIC has highlighted the diversity
of French social web players present in the "Domain Names" sector, and their respective positions.
The "snapshot" taken in early 2011 is probably highly scalable, especially since, like many other
structures, AFNIC has taken action to significantly expand its presence on the social web, and
educate its members about the issues related to domain names and the benefits that can be
gained from them.
In 2011, 85% of .fr domain names lead to an effective website, either directly or by redirect to
another address, underlining the high rate of use of the extension. In addition, based on a random
sample of 1,000 .fr domain names, an analysis of site content again shows that nearly half of them
are professional in nature, well ahead of personal sites (4%). A quarter of the sites are parked and
lead to a holding page or sponsored links.
In legal terms, a new naming policy and a new procedure for resolving disputes for the .fr TLD had
been put in place by 1 July 2011. The PREDEC procedure for AFNIC and the ADR procedure for
the WIPO were suspended in April-May 2011, but had been used on a regular basis up until then.
Requests to lift anonymity and verify the eligibility for .fr domain names continue to be commonly
used. Of all the disputes, all extensions combined, France represents 11% of the plaintiffs and 3%
of the defendants: it seems that French companies are more often victims than perpetrators of
acts such as cybersquatting, and seem to always initiate litigation a posteriori rather than pursue
defensive registration policies in advance.
Expected changes in France and worldwide
On 22 March 2011, the law adapting French legislation to the European Union law on occupational
health, labour and electronic communications has clarified the legal framework for the allocation
of domain names in France. In the new Article L. 45 of the French Electronic Communications
and Telecommunications Act, it includes issues related to the Freedom of Communication and
Freedom of Trade, to make it consistent with the French Constitution. On 1 July 2011, AFNIC
implemented various changes related to this new legal framework, including a new naming policy,
new procedures for dispute resolution, release of "key terms" that were previously blocked, daily
publication of the list of domain names registered on the previous day, to name but a few.
Other major changes will follow, such as opening access to the .fr TLD to Europe as well as most
of the overseas extensions in December 2011. This opening could affect the market structure of
registrars, if new leading European players decide to move into the French extension. AFNIC is also
studying the possibility of registering domain names in internationalised characters (IDNs) under
the .fr TLD.
French Domain Name Industry Report – 2011 Issue

14. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 13
The process of creating new extensions introduced by ICANN in 2008 is now in progress, the
schedule having set the application deadline for the 12th of April 2012, potentially enabling the
operational launch of the new extensions by the end of 2013. Hundreds of new extensions,
representing cities, regions and cultural communities, as well as brand names or points of interest,
could well emerge. In a few years this development is liable to upset the landscape of the Internet
as we know it, with possible impacts on existing extensions and market players. AFNIC, which
is already involved in the draft extension .paris, is also positioned as a solutions provider and
technical operator capable of providing support for project leaders for new extensions, in preparing
the submission of their application to ICANN and the operational management of the extension
thereafter.

16. PART ONE
BACKGROUND

17. 16 PART ONE: BACKGROUND
Chapter 1: the Internet in France
■ Data source: CREDOC, ARCEP, CGIET, Eurostat.
This chapter presents an overview of Internet use in France, including the rate with which people in
France are being equipped for Internet access, number of users, number of Internet subscriptions
and international comparisons.
Internet users increasingly numerous and better equipped
Household penetration of PCs and Internet access has been steadily increasing for many years1. In
2010, more than three-quarters of French people had a computer at home, and more than seven
out of ten had Internet access. The percentage of individuals with a computer but no Internet
access has significantly dropped over the years (from 19% in 1998 to 5% in 2010).
The percentage of Internet users is also continuing to grow: depending on the surveys, in 2010 it
ranged between 74% and 80% of the French population2.
In Q1 2011 the total number of Internet subscriptions in France was 22.2 million, according to
ARCEP3. The vast majority uses broadband technology, mainly ADSL, the growth of which continues
to be strong (8% per year). As to broadband access, in the second quarter of 2011 it stood at
555,000 subscribers, including 155,000 using fibre to the home (FTTH), with very high growth rates
(of some 50% per year for all types of broadband access and 70% for FTTH alone). For the first
time, in early 2011, high-speed broadband subscriptions surpassed low-speed access, which has
seen rapid decline for a number of years.
The installed base of mobile phones is currently approaching 102% of the population due to multi-
device systems, with strong growth in Internet use: 43% of callers use multimedia services (WAP,
i-mode, MMS, e-mail), while 36% of callers use 3G services. If growth in the installed base of mobile
phones remains strong (around 6% a year), 60% of that growth is linked to non-voice SIM cards, a
market segment that has been booming for the last two years with an annual growth rate of more
than 27% in Internet-only cards (PCMCIA cards, 3G/3G+ Internet keys) and above all a growth rate
of nearly 61% for SIM cards for communicating objects ("machine to machine" cards).
French Domain Name Industry Report – 2011 Issue

18. PART ONE: BACKGROUND 17
French Internet statistics for 2011 (according to CREDOC, Eurostat and ARCEP)
Change
Indicator Value over one
year
Equipment at home
Computers 76% of the population in 2010 + 2 points
Internet access 71% of the population in 2010 + 4 points
Internet users
+4 à 8
Internet users 74 to 80% of the population in 2010 (accord. to survey)
points
Internet subscriptions
Internet access 22.2 million in Q1-2011 7%
Low Bandwidth 0.44 million in Q1-2011 - 27 %
Broadband access 21.5 million in Q2-2011 7%
Very High Bandwidth access 0.56 million in Q2-2011 52 %
Mobile phones
Installed base of mobile phones 66 million, or 101.6% of the population in Q2-2011 6%
Active base of multimedia mobile phones 28.4 million, or 43.3% of the mobile base in Q1-2011 18 %
Active installed base of 3G users 23.7 million, or 36.2% of the mobile base in Q1-2011 29 %
Internet-only SIM cards 2.8 million in Q1-2011 27 %
SIM cards for communicating objects 2.8 million in Q1-2011 61 %
Table 1 – French Internet statistics, 2011

19. 18 PART ONE: BACKGROUND
International comparisons
According to Eurostat, in 2010 France was above the European average penetration rate for
household broadband access (67% against 61% for the EU). This rate was up ten points for
France, when on average in Europe it only improved five points. The northern countries of Europe
continue to post the highest broadband access rates, reaching 87% in the case of Iceland.
With regard to the high-speed access ratios for companies, France is one of the leading countries
in Europe, with a rate of 93% against an average of 84% for the European Union. These relatively
high figures have changed little over the past year (zero to one point of growth).
European companies with broadband Internet access in 2010 (Source: Eurostat)
100%
95% 95%
93% 93%
91% 90%
89% 89% 88% 88%
90% 87% 87% 87%
Percentage of companies (10 or more employees)
85% 85% 85% 84% 84% 84% EU Average: 84%
83% 83%
80%
80% 78% 78%
76% 76% 75%
71%
70% 66% 66%
61%
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Figure 1 – Broadband Internet access ratios for European companies
French Domain Name Industry Report – 2011 Issue

20. PART ONE: BACKGROUND 19
The situation is still the opposite with regard to the creation of websites for companies in France: in
2010, 58% of companies with at least ten employees had a website, compared with the European
average of 67%. This inferior ranking should be seen in conjunction with the lesser use of domain
names in France by comparison with countries of similar economic development. However, over
the past year in France this figure rose slightly more than the EU average (3% against 2%).
European companies with a website or home page in 2010 (Source: Eurostat)
100%
89% 88%
90% 87%
Percentage of companies (10 or more employees)
81% 81% 80%
80% 78% 78% 77%
76%
74% 74% 73%
70% 70%
70% 68% EU average: 67%
66% 65% 65%
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Figure 2 - Development of web sites by European companies

21. 20 PART ONE: BACKGROUND
Chapter 2: Domain names worldwide
■ Data source: AFNIC, Wikipedia, CENTR, WebHosting.Info, Security Space, Internet Systems Consortium.
The purpose of this chapter is to provide statistical data on the use of domain names around the
world (including all extensions).
Use of extensions in the world
The .com generic domain is still far ahead, with more than 95 million domain names registered.
Far behind, two extensions represent more than ten million names (the German extension .de
and the .net generic extension), with two others approaching (.uk for the United Kingdom and the
generic .org). The Chinese extension .cn continued to fall due to the highly restrictive registration
requirements established by the CNNIC extension registry: after a brief period in 2009 during which
it was the second largest extension in the world with 13 million domain names, it is now ranked
eighth with only 3.4 million domains. The French extension occupies 16th place in the standings
with just over two million domain names.
Number of domain names registered in June 2011 per extension
(Source: AFNIC, study of 50 of the main global extensions)
.com; 95,771,200
.de (Germany); 14,490,843
.net; 13,993,299
.uk (United Kingdom); 9,490,537
.org; 9,256,054
.info; 7,881,985
.nl (Netherlands); 4,522,665
.cn (China); 3,379,441
.eu (European Union); 3,347,378
Extension
.ru (Russia); 3,335,265
.br (Brazil); 2,553,255
.it (Italy); 2,210,999
.pl (Poland); 2,136,182
.au (Australia); 2,132,108
.biz; 2,104,281
.fr (France); 2,036,473
.us (United States); 1,720,579
.ca (Canada); 1,714,373
.ch (Switzerland); 1,594,382
.es (Spain); 1,353,110
0 20,000,000 40,000,000 60,000,000 80,000,000 100,000,000 120,000,000
Number of domain names per extension
Figure 3 – Number of domain names per extension
French Domain Name Industry Report – 2011 Issue

22. PART ONE: BACKGROUND 21
In terms of growth, the .me extension of Montenegro posted the fastest growth this year (32%) as
well as last year, due to its position as an open extension designed to identify personal content. The
Israeli extension (.il) and the Iranian extension (.ir) follow with annual growth of around 30%, but only
represent a small number of domain names registered (each representing approximately 200,000).
The .info extension has also grown significantly over the past year (28%). With an annual growth
rate of 17%, the French extension is well-positioned and more dynamic than the average for the
national extensions included in the study (12% excluding China). This year, growth has also been
slightly higher for generic extensions (13%), contrasting with the reverse trend in previous years.
As such, while the overall market has gained five percentage points of growth compared with last
year, it is only due to the generic extensions (+7 points), with the national extensions maintaining the
same growth rate as for the previous year. Finally, the special case of the Russian national extension
in Cyrillic characters .рф is worth noting: after totalling some 20,000 registrations by the end of the
priority registration period in September 2010, it grew dramatically during the public opening to
reach 850,000 domain names by June 2011.
In terms of the number of domain names registered per capita, the .fr extension posted a ratio
of 3.1 domain names per 100 inhabitants, and has been continuously growing for several years
(1.2 in 2007). The Montenegrin extension .me remains well ahead due to its market positioning
which places it more among the generic extensions rather than national. These are followed by the
Dutch (.nl), Swiss (.ch), and Danish (.dk) extensions with more than 20 names per 100 inhabitants.
We may note that the number of domain names per head of population is not necessarily
representative of a national domain’s real usage by the people in the country concerned: some
of the domain names have been registered by firms and not by individuals. On the other hand,
in the case of domains without any territorial requirements, some of the names are registered by
people who do not belong to the country concerned (the most blatant case being the Montenegro
domain, mainly registered by English-speaking people). This means that the "number of domains
per head of population" turns out to be largely connected with the degree to which a domain is
openly available: the ratio should therefore be viewed with care. Up until now, the .fr extension has
included a territorial requirement: its domain names were available only to French residents and
corporate bodies registered in France, to French citizens living abroad, or to holders of registered
trademarks in France.

23. 22 PART ONE: BACKGROUND
The changes in the adjusted number of domain names in the major extensions since 2007 show
that the French extension has grown significantly more than the average extensions studied, both
national and generic, and that its growth is highly stable. As a result, its growth has reached 137%
over the last four years, against an average of 64% for the national extensions excluding China,
and 39% for generic extensions over the same period. The Russian, Polish, Romanian, and Czech
extensions have posted the best growth rates over the last four years, immediately followed by the
.fr TLD. This contrasts sharply with the Chinese extension .cn which has lost 45% of its portfolio of
names over the same period, and nearly 80% from the peak of 14 million names in late 2009, just
before the "purge" organized by the CNNIC.
Changes in the adjusted number of domain names per type of extension since 2007
(base 100 in June 2007, Source: CENTR, study of the 30 main global extensions)
260
Standardised number of domains (base 100 in June 2007)
240 Changes over one year (June 2010 - June 2011)
.fr : +17% .fr
Total ccTLD (except CN) : +12%
220 Total gTLD : +9%
Total TLD (except CN) : +9%
200
180
Total ccTLD (except CN)
160
Total TLD (except CN)
140
Total gTLD
120
100
Jun Sep Dec Mar Jun Sep Dec Mar Jun Sep Dec Mar Jun Sep Dec Mar Jun
2007 2007 2007 2008 2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 2011 2011
Month
Figure 4 – Changes in the "adjusted" number of domain names, per type of extension
The growth rate year on year has been declining for several years for all TLDs, probably due to the
current economic crisis. In contrast, the growth of the .fr TLD has stayed several points above the
average for the national and generic extensions: the average of the extensions currently seems to
stabilize around 10% of the annual growth rate, while the .fr TLD was still 17% in June 2011.
French Domain Name Industry Report – 2011 Issue

24. PART ONE: BACKGROUND 23
Geographical breakdown of domain names
The site WebHosting.Info4 provides estimates of the geographical distribution of generic domain
names around the world. These indicate that nearly two thirds of such domain names were
registered in the United States, followed by Germany, China, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
The proportion of generic domain names registered in France is 2.6%, as last year, but has grown
over the last four years (2.2% in 2007). China rose by 0.4 points in the rankings this year and is
double that for the United Kingdom after overtaking Canada last year, indicating a growing interest
in generic extensions when the conditions for accessing the national extension .cn have become
highly restrictive.
Distribution of generic domain names .com /.net /.org /.info /.biz
Based on the country of registration in July 2011 (Source: WebHosting.Info)
Other countries; 9.7%
Netherlands; 1.1%
Number of generic domains:
Italy; 1.1% 120 million
Spain; 1.3% Up 7.3% over one year
(against 7.1% in 2010
Australia; 1.8%
(-0.4 over one year) and 4.1% in 2009)
Japan; 1.9%
France; 2.6%
Canada; 3.3%
United Kingdom; 3.8%
China; 4.1%
(+0.4 over one year)
Germany; 5.4%
United Kingdom; 64.0%
(-0.5 over one year)
Figure 5 – Breakdown of generic domain names per country
Distribution of web servers and Internet hosts per extension
Domain names are used to identify different hardware, such as servers or network equipment.
According to the website Security Space5, the primary extension chosen to identify Web servers is
the .com gTLD (45%), the .fr extension in turn being used by 1.3% of the web servers in the world.
With regard to all Internet hosts (including servers and network equipment), the statistics provided
by Internet Systems Consortium6 indicate that the .net extension is by far the first choice (over one
third), the .fr TLD being used by almost 2% of Internet hosts.

25. 24 PART ONE: BACKGROUND
Internationalized national extensions (IDN)
After the groundwork carried out by ICANN from 2006 onwards, since late 2009 that states and
territories that wish to can request an extension using their national characters, such as Arabic
or Chinese. The objective of the national IDN extensions is to enable people in the countries
concerned to use domain names written entirely in their native language, while under the previous
rules, extensions had to be written using the American alphabet (ASCII). The first four applications
approved by ICANN were for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Russia. The first
IDN extensions were introduced into the DNS root zone in May 2010, and the market openings
immediately followed for the four extensions. The Russian extension in Cyrillic characters .рф met
with immediate success, with over 200,000 registrations within the first six hours after the public
opening on 11 November 2010, and 850,000 domain names had been registered by June 2011.
Many other countries have followed, with national extensions using different character sets (Arabic,
Chinese, Cyrillic, Persian, Tamil, Thai, etc.). Other applications are currently being processed by
ICANN (Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Oman, Pakistan, Ukraine, and Yemen).
French Domain Name Industry Report – 2011 Issue

26. PART ONE: BACKGROUND 25
Country Extensions nationales IDN
Algeria . (Arabic)
.中国 (simplified Chinese)
China
.中國 (traditional Chinese)
Egypt . (Arabic)
Hong Kong .香港 (traditional Chinese)
.ভারত (Bengali)
.भारत (Devanagari)
.ભારત (Gujarati)
India .ਭਾਰਤ (Gurmukhi)
. (Urdu)
.இந்தியா (Tamil)
.భారత్ (Telugu)
Iran . (Persian)
Jordan . (Arabic)
Morocco . (Arabic)
Palestine . (Arabic)
Qatar . (Arabic)
Russia .рф (Cyrillic)
Saudi Arabia . (Arabic)
Serbia .срб (Cyrillic)
.新加坡 (simplified Chinese)
Singapore
. - (Tamil)
South Korea .한국 (Hangeul)
. - (Sinhala)
Sri Lanka
. - (Tamil)
Syria . (Arabic)
.台湾 (simplified Chinese)
Taiwan
.台灣 (traditional Chinese)
Thailand .ไทย (Thai)
Tunisia . (Arabic)
United Arab Emirates . (Arabic)
Table 2 – IDN national extensions accepted by ICANN in 2011

27. 26 PART ONE: BACKGROUND
Chapter 3: Domain names in France
■ Data source : ZookNIC, AFNIC.
The purpose of this chapter is to provide statistical evidence on market share for extensions for
domain names registered in France (.fr and generic extensions), as well as market share in France
in relation to the all generic domain names registered worldwide.
Market share for extensions in France
In July 2011, the extensions most used in France were .com (nearly 46% of all names) and the
.fr TLD (32%), the other extensions being far behind. The .com has made the most progress
in the year, to the detriment of most of the other extensions. The upswing could be linked to
the promotional campaign organized by the VeriSign registry for registrars to celebrate the 25th
anniversary of the .com gTLD in the spring of 2010. It may also reflect the rotation of extensions
that the main registrars promote one after another via time-limited offers, such that the .fr TLD won
market share in France for several years but lost ground this year.
Distribution of the main domain names registered in France in July 2011
(Source: ZookNIC and AFNIC)
.biz ; 1.3%
.info ; 2.4% (-0.3 over one year)
(-0.3 over one year)
.eu ; 4,6% .mobi ; 0.3%
(-0.8 over one year)
.org ; 5.5%
(-0.4 over one year)
.net ; 7.8%
(+0.4 over one year)
.com ; 45.9%
(+3.2 over one year)
.fr ; 32.2%
(-1.7 over one year)
Figure 6 – Breakdown of extensions for domain names registered in France
French Domain Name Industry Report – 2011 Issue

28. PART ONE: BACKGROUND 27
After a period of latency between July 2008 and July 2009, the .com extension has resumed its
growth in the French market, particularly since the beginning of 2011, which may correspond to the
promotional campaign initiated by the VeriSign registry. The .fr TLD has grown much more smoothly
and regularly over time. Over one year, the .com and .net extensions have grown by around 30%,
followed by the .fr TLD which this year has posted an increase of 17%. The other extensions have
had more limited annual performance, the .biz and the .eu TLDs making almost no headway at all.
All extensions combined, the overall French market has grown 22%.
On an observation period of four years (July 2007-July 2011), the .fr extension has seen the
strongest growth in France, well ahead of the overall growth of the French market, all extensions
combined (140% against 90%). Over the same period, the .com gTLD alone has increased its
portfolio of domain names by 80%.
The .fr TLD has gradually gained market share on the French territory to the detriment of the
major generic extensions since 2000. After a peak of 34% in summer 2010, it underwent a slight
downswing to 32% one year later.
Since the principle of entitlement to a name was abandoned in May 2004, the .fr TLD has almost
always been ahead of the .com / .net / .org and .eu extensions in terms of growth rates year on
year until the summer of 2010. The .com gTLD then took the head of extensions until the summer
of 2011.
French market share worldwide
Over one year, the French market share worldwide in the registration of domain names with generic
extensions rose from 2.8% to 3.2%. It is close to 9% for the .eu TLD, whose market is European
and not global, and between 3% and 4% for most generic extensions except for the .info and
.mobi TLDs in which France is less present (around 2% of market share). Over one year, France
has slightly improved its position worldwide for the three main generic extensions .com / .net / .org
and remained stable for other extensions (.biz, .info, .eu, .mobi). This trend is probably due to the
renewed dynamism of these extensions after several years of "depression", and is consistent with
their relative strength compared with the .fr extension.

30. PART TWO
.FR DOMAIN NAMES

31. 30 PART TWO: .FR DOMAIN NAMES
Chapter 4: Number of .fr domain names
■ Data source: AFNIC.
The purpose of this chapter is to provide figures on the registration of .fr domain names, including
changes in the number of names registered, distribution as between individuals and corporate
bodies, and operations carried out (name creation, deletion, and renewal rates).
Number of .fr domain names
The growth curve for the total number of .fr domains clearly shows the impact of successive
changes in the naming policy (abolition of entitlement to a name in May 2004 and opening to
private individuals in June 2006). The momentum increased from 30,000 new names a year in the
early 2000s, to 300,000 new names per year since 2006 to the present date. On 1 July 2011, there
were 2,054,731 .fr domain names registered in the AFNIC database. Growth has slowed since the
economic crisis: it dropped from 25% in 2009 to 21% in 2010 and to 17% this year. This slowdown
is not specific to the French extension, however, but affects all the extensions.
Domain names are overwhelmingly registered directly under the .fr TLD, only 1% of them are
registered in a level-two sub-domain. In addition, sub-domains have regressed or stagnated over
one year (-2% on average), except for gouv.fr (+7%) and com.fr (2%). It should be noted that the
figures presented here only take into account the sub-domains directly managed by AFNIC, not the
sectoral sub-domains delegated to other administrative authorities7.
French Domain Name Industry Report – 2011 Issue

32. PART TWO: .FR DOMAIN NAMES 31
Change in the number of .fr domain names since 2000
(directly under .fr or under a sub-domain managed by AFNIC)
2,500,000
Right to .fr domain .fr opened to
name renounced private individuals
2,000,000
+ 300,000 domains/year
Number of domain names
1,500,000
1,000,000
+ 120,000
domains/year
500,000
+ 30,000 domains/year
0
00
4
5
9
1
2
6
7
3
8
0
0
1
06
07
08
09
10
01
02
03
04
05
11
00
00
00
01
00
00
00
00
00
01
00
00
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
20
l2
l2
l2
l2
l2
l2
l2
l2
l2
l2
l2
l2
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
Ju
Ju
Ju
Ju
Ju
Ju
Ju
Ju
Ju
Ju
Ju
Ju
Ja
Ja
Ja
Ja
Ja
Ja
Ja
Ja
Ja
Ja
Ja
Ja
Month
Figure 7 – Changes in the total number of .fr domain names

33. 32 PART TWO: .FR DOMAIN NAMES
Private individuals and legal entities
Domain names under the .fr TLD may be registered by private individuals as well as by corporate
bodies (companies, associations, public bodies, etc.). Until June 2006, private individuals only
could only register .fr domain names in sub-domains of the extension (nom.fr and com.fr); they can
now file names directly under the national extension.
The distribution between the two types of holders shows that a majority of them are still legal
entities: at the end of the first half of 2010, 60.5% of the domain names were registered by corporate
bodies as against 39.5% by private individuals. In one year, the percentage held by individuals has
nonetheless gained a little more than 1 point.
The share of .fr domain names held by individuals is also steadily increasing: it has almost doubled
in four years, from 21% in early 2007 to 39.5% in June 2011. Since the domain became available
to individuals in 2006, half of the new name registrations have been by individuals. This mechanism
of catching up on the part of individuals seems to converge to an asymptote of around 40%.
Percentage of .fr domain names registered by physical persons since 2007
(cumulative number and creations of new names)
70%
Creations of new .fr domain names
60%
Percentage of .fr domain names registered
50%
Cumulative number of .fr domain names
by physical persons
40%
30%
20%
Annual average (July 2010 - June 2011):
Individuals own 39.2% of .fr domain names
and create 50% of new domain names
10%
0%
Mar Jun Sep Dec Mar Jun Sep Dec Mar Jun Sep Dec Mar Jun Sep Dec Mar Jun
2007 2007 2007 2007 2008 2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 2011 2011
Month
Figure 8 – Percentage of .fr domain names registered by individuals
French Domain Name Industry Report – 2011 Issue