Middle East and Adjoining Countries DNS Study Document Reference ICANN/ME-DNS/003 Protective Marking COMMERCIAL - IN CONFIDENCE Document Owner EURid Status FINAL Publication Date 25 Jan 2016 Latest review date 22 Feb 2016 Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... 7 Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 7 Understanding the region’s Internet environment ..................................................................... 7 The region’s domain name industry: registries, registrars and registrants ................................ 8 Domains in the region – facts and figures ................................................................................. 9 Analysis of the market potential for domains in the region ...................................................... 10 Recommendations .................................................................................................................. 10 I. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 12 Research methodology ........................................................................................................... 13 User survey ............................................................................................................................. 13 Observations on methodology and potential biases ............................................................ 13 Domain name registration and usage ..................................................................................... 13 ccTLDs ................................................................................................................................ 13 gTLD data ............................................................................................................................ 14 II. The wider Internet environment: .......................................................................................... 16 Factors influencing domain uptake ............................................................................................. 16 Background – an introduction to the region ............................................................................ 16 What countries are included in the Study? .............................................................................. 16 Gaining an understanding of the factors that drive domain name growth ............................... 16 Foundations of Internet development – economics, literacy and language ............................ 17 Economic factors ................................................................................................................. 17 Skills and language ............................................................................................................. 18 Internet access and usage .................................................................................................. 20 Internet users and Internet use ............................................................................................... 21 Who responded to the qualitative survey? .............................................................................. 22 Social or business use of the Internet? ................................................................................... 23 Websites or social media? ...................................................................................................... 25 What type of content have you uploaded or shared online in the past 12 months? ............ 25 Sharing through websites or social media? ......................................................................... 26 How do you prefer to interact? Online or offline? .................................................................... 27 Results of supplemental survey (December 2015-January 2016) .......................................... 28 What do the results tell us? ..................................................................................................... 31 2 The importance of local languages ......................................................................................... 31 Policy and/or regulation ........................................................................................................... 34 III. Factors affecting the wider domain name market in the region ....................................... 36 Hosting and value added services in the region ..................................................................... 36 Why is hosting relevant? ..................................................................................................... 36 The wider Internet services ecosystem within the region – hosting ........................................ 37 Popular websites in the region ................................................................................................ 37 Website and hosting choices, end-user perspective ............................................................... 39 End user awareness of domain names and intent to purchase .............................................. 41 Use of domain names in locating online resources ................................................................. 41 IV. The domain name industry in the MEAC region .............................................................. 44 Domain name registries .......................................................................................................... 44 Preamble ............................................................................................................................. 44 Registry type ........................................................................................................................ 44 Registry fee ......................................................................................................................... 49 Registration model ............................................................................................................... 49 Registry services ................................................................................................................. 51 Registry promotional activities ............................................................................................. 52 Registry policies for registrants ........................................................................................... 52 Sources ............................................................................................................................... 53 Global Registrar and Resellers ............................................................................................... 54 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 54 Overview .............................................................................................................................. 55 End-User (registrant) experiences of the domain name industry ............................................ 60 Domain name registration ................................................................................................... 60 Which TLDs? ....................................................................................................................... 61 Intent to register domains? .................................................................................................. 61 User feedback on the domain registration experience ........................................................ 61 Choosing a registrar ............................................................................................................ 63 Value added services .......................................................................................................... 64 What factors influence buying decisions? ........................................................................... 65 Do users prefer to use local or foreign registrars? .............................................................. 65 Summary – user views on domain registration ....................................................................... 66 3 Payment gateway ....................................................................................................................... 67 The Region .............................................................................................................................. 67 Transaction costs .................................................................................................................... 67 Payment tools ......................................................................................................................... 68 Premium domain names ............................................................................................................. 70 V. Quantitative analysis of domain name uptake across the MEAC region ............................. 75 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 75 Domain name registrations across the region ......................................................................... 75 ccTLD vs. gTLD registrations .............................................................................................