The .FR in 2020
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The .FR in 2020 March 2021 www.afnic.fr | [email protected] Twitter: @AFNIC | Facebook: afnic.fr CONTENT Definitions ................................................................................................... 4 Preamble ...................................................................................................... 5 Executive Summary ............................................................................. 6 1. Growth of the .FR ...............................................................................7 2. Market share in France ............................................................... 8 3. Activity of the .FR ............................................................................ 10 4. Structure of the .FR net balance .......................................... 12 5. Key parameters of the .FR ....................................................... 14 5.1. Increasing Creation Rate ....................................................... 14 5.2. Increasing Maintenance Rate .............................................. 15 5.3. Distribution of .FR names by age, an explanatory factor ............................................................................................ 16 5.4. Change in the number of .FR names since 1998 ............. 19 2 The .FR in 2020 6. .FR market concentration ...................................................... 20 7. Geographical distribution of the .FR nationwide .. 24 8. Foreign holders .............................................................................. 25 9. DNSSEC .................................................................................................. 27 10. Internationalised domain names under the .FR .... 29 11. Multi-year registrations .......................................................... 30 12. The .FR and business creation ............................................ 32 13. 2021 outlook for the .FR .............................................................. 35 3 The .FR in 2020 Definitions TLD (Top-Level Domain): the last segment or extension of a domain name; the part that follows after the “dot” symbol. The .FR and .ORG are top-level domains. ccTLD (country-code Top-Level Domain): a TLD specific to a country or territory. The ccTLD for France is the .FR, but there are other French ccTLDs such as the .RE (Réunion Island), .PM (Saint-Pierre and Miquelon), etc. gTLD (generic Top-Level Domain): generic TLD, not attached to a particular country or territory. The .COM, .NET, .ORG are gTLDs. Legacy gTLD: generic TLD created before 2014. These are “legacy” TLDs such as the .COM, .NET, .ORG or more recent (2001-2004) such as .INFO, .BIZ, .MOBI, etc. nTLD (New Top-Level Domain): generic TLD created after 2014. nTLDs are divided into several sub-segments such as geoTLDs (regions, cities, etc.), Community TLDs (community-based), .BRANDs (TLD suffix corresponding to major brands) or generic nTLDs (common dictionary terms). 4 The .FR in 2020 Preamble 2020 was a very special year for the .FR, as for the great majority of ccTLDs. COVID-19 and the periods of lockdown led to a sharp acceleration in the digital transformation, which benefited all players in the value chain linked to online presence. For the .FR, the most tangible sign of this phenomenon was a sharp increase (+14%) in create operations relative to 2019. This report analyses this atypical period, striving to draw lessons from it, particularly as to the links between the domain name industry and the digital market in the broad sense. It also endeavours to identify the underlying trends in order to see how 2021 might look for the .FR. 5 The .FR in 2020 Executive Summary The .FR had an atypical year in view of the circumstances, with a considerable increase in the number of create operations (+14%) and 7% growth in the stock of domain names. These trends result from the acceleration of the digital transformation, which has led numerous VSEs and SMEs to develop their online activities. The majority of these enterprises opted to register .FR domain names, leading to an increase in the TLD’s market share, which stood at 38% at the end of 2020. The Maintenance Rate also improved, reaching 83.9%. The age structure of .FR domain names has contributed so far to the TLD’s stability, but also to its growth. The “deconcentration” of the .FR continues, with create operations being less concentrated than the stock of names. This is particularly the case of the three main registrars, which have benefited less in relative terms from the flows of create operations brought about by the acceleration of the digital transformation, while continuing to account for two thirds of .FR domain names. The dynamics of some regions show an even more marked “catch-up” phenomenon relative to the Île de France Region than in previous years, this contrast being associated with the context of the rapid online development of economic activities that had not found this to be essential until now. There is a positive correlation, more or less marked depending on the years, between .FR create operations and business creation, even though not all .FR domain names are registered by start-ups and not all start-ups turn exclusively to the .FR. The outlook for 2021 for the .FR depends on two phenomena, the scope and extent of both of which it is difficult to predict: on the one hand, the digital transformation, which is on the way to becoming permanent and is leading to more create and renew operations; and on the other hand, the general state of the economy, which may weigh on investment against a backdrop of the failure of many businesses that only survived 2020 with difficulty. 6 The .FR in 2020 1. Growth of the .FR At 31 December 2020, the .FR had 3,670,372 names in stock, compared with 3,428,951 at 31 December 2019. It thus grew by 7.0% in 2020, with a net balance of 241,421 names. After two years of slowdown, the .FR almost doubled its growth in 2020 relative to 2019 (7.0% as against 3.7%). This growth remained higher than that of the French market for all TLDs together (+6.1% in 2020 as opposed to +2.5% in 2019). The number of European Union ccTLDs declined slightly (-1.0%) in 2020 due to the .UK (United Kingdom), which suffered from the expiry of names registered in a free-of-charge operation in 2019. Excluding the .UK, growth of EU ccTLDs represented +3.6% in 2020. The world market ultimately grew by only 1.4%, in particular as the major generic TLDs did not see the same rebound as ccTLDs, but also due to the fact that certain TLDs relying on mass domaining saw their stocks collapse. This development was a direct consequence of lockdown, and certainly gives important clues as to the resilience of the business models on which the activity of the “penny” or “low- cost” TLDs habitually relies. It is also probable that the relative stability of TLDs such as the .COM has resulted from contrary effects cancelling each other out, the increase in create operations thanks to the acceleration of the digital transformation having been offset by the sharp reduction in registrations linked to domaining. Change in annual growth rates 25,0% 20,0% 15,0% Growth .FR Growth French market 10,0% Growth EU zone Growth global market 5,0% 0,0% 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 -5,0% Figure 1: Change in annual growth rates 7 The .FR in 2020 2. Market share in France Having grown faster than its local market in 2019 (see Fig. 1), the market share of the .FR continued to grow this past year to reach 38.0% (compared with 37.7% at the end of 2019). This market share constitutes a new all-time high for the .FR TLD. The increase in market share was thus 0.3 pp in 2020, whereas the .COM lost 0.6 pp, the difference between the two TLDs being 1 pp of market share in 2020. Table 1: Changes in market share in France (2012-2020) 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 .FR 3,6% 0,4% 0,1% -0,7% 0,0% 0,7% 0,8% 0,5% 0,3% .COM -3,2% 0,3% -0,7% 0,6% 0,1% 0,1% 1,2% 0,6% -0,6% Other Legacy TLDs -0,6% -0,6% -0,5% -0,3% -0,9% -1,0% -0,9% -0,8% -0,3% Other ccTLDs 0,2% -0,2% -0,1% -0,4% -0,1% -0,1% -0,3% -0,2% -0,4% nTLDs 1,3% 0,8% 0,9% 0,3% -0,9% -0,1% 1,0% Table 1: Changes in market share in France (2012-2020) Table 1 shows the gains and losses in market share since 2012. Last year saw the prolongation of certain marked trends such as the decline of “Other Legacy TLDs” and “Other TLDs”, notably the .EU. Conversely, to judge from the ZookNIC data, nTLDs benefited from the situation, returning to growth after two years of shrinkage. At the time of the last reviews, we analysed the counter-performance of the “Other Legacy TLDs” as possibly being due to miscellaneous factors: heightened competition of nTLDs, confusion linked to an expanded offering and limited strategic potential of the French market in the eyes of registries of global TLDs compared with other markets such as that of the United States or China. 2020 nonetheless demonstrated the strong dynamic of the French domain name industry, in that it relies less on registrations filed with a view to domaining operations than on those filed for purposes of genuine use. Thus the change brought about by the acceleration of the digital transformation has demonstrated the health of the French market and its considerable potential while at the same time highlighting the vulnerability of domaining business models to short-term economic risks. It is probable that a return to normal will lead to a resurgence in domaining activities. The past few months have however demonstrated that in reality