Domains by the numbers

\n \n Domain names are words that stand for numbers (IP addresses).\n {\" \"}\n We just crossed 400 million domains registered globally, so I decided to\n write some words about that number—and other numbers.\n

$0

\n The initial cost to register a domain in 1993.\n

\n Domain registration was free when it first opened to the public in the\n early nineties. The internet will probably be pretty niche, anyway,\n right? A journalist for WIRED, Joshua Quittner, registered\n mcdonalds[dot]com in 1994, before which a McDonald’s PR person asked\n him, “Are you finding that the Internet is a big thing?”\n

$0.20

\n \n ICANN’s transaction fee paid by registrars when a domain is\n registered, renewed, or transferred.\n \n

\n Only a couple dimes, sure, but if you take this number and multiply it\n by that other number—400 million domains registered—you get $80 million\n in transaction fees ICANN collects each year. ICANN is a fairly large\n organization—about 450 employees—representing the much larger internet\n community. They pay for three free-to-attend conferences each year to\n convene thousands of people from that community. ICANN has its critics,\n but for my part, the many people I’ve met who work for ICANN are\n competent, kind, and care about the internet.\n

2

\n The number of characters in a ccTLD.\n

\n Any top-level domain you come across with two letters belongs to a\n country. So for example .ai, .io, and .co belong to Anguilla, the\n British Indian Ocean Territory, and Colombia, respectively. Those are\n called{\" \"}\n country code top-level domains, or ccTLDs, and there are 316 of\n them. This is where geopolitics and the internet often intersect, like\n when{\" \"}\n \n Yugoslavia’s .yu went dark\n , or when Afghanistan shut down queer[dot]af.\n

10

\n \n The maximum number of years for which you can register a domain.\n \n

\n Owning your own domain is about the closest you can get to ownership on\n the internet (much more control than a social media account, say). But\n the 10-year maximum renewal period is a reminder that it’s the registry\n that ultimately owns your domain. They can raise prices or change\n policy, and what happens to your domain when you die?\n

$10.26

\n The wholesale price Verisign charges for .com domains.\n

\n On November 1, this will go up to $10.97. Verisign has a contract with\n ICANN and the US Department of Commerce (the NTIA, technically) that\n allows them to raise .com prices by up to 7% for the last four years of\n the six-year contract.\n

13

\n The number of DNS root servers.\n

\n There’s a set of root servers\n {\" \"}\n around the world whose primary job is to store domain-IP pairs^{\n 1\n}. There are only 13 such servers. Technically, it’s 13 IP\n addresses shared by about two thousand actual servers around the world.\n 12 organizations run those 13 root servers, and it’s sort of an odd\n bunch. Verisign runs several dozen—ok, makes sense—, ICANN\n controls a bunch—yeah—, NASA operates a few hundred—\n sure\n —, and—wait a minute—the University of Maryland? UMD runs\n 225 root nameservers all over the world, more than 10% of all root\n servers. The US has the most total root servers within its borders at\n 400ish. China has less than one hundred. Iceland has six. As with any\n resource, the Internet is not evenly distributed.\n

47%

\n \n The percentage of Anguilla’s revenue from .ai domain sales in 2025.\n \n

\n \n Anguilla is the A-Island\n . They’re using .ai proceeds to fund infrastructure, like schools,\n roads, and airports. Hypothetically, Anguilla could even fund a\n Universal Basic Income of ~$2-5k per citizen (kind of like Alaska’s\n oil-funded dividend). They used to have the actual servers on the\n island, but now Identity Digital runs the registry backend.\n

63

\n The maximum length of a domain label.\n

\n A domain name’s label—i.e. the part before the dot—can be no longer than\n 63 characters. In the case of subdomains, you could have more than one\n label—e.g. one.two.three[dot]com—totaling no more than 255 characters.\n This is per RFC 1035, written by DNS inventor Paul Mockapetris in 1987.\n To illustrate that 63 characters is Quite Long Enough, consider for\n example the 60-character title of one of my favorite essays, recast as a\n domain name:\n getting-away-from-pretty-much-already-being-away-from-it-all[dot]com\n

277

\n The number of top-level domains owned by Identity Digital.\n

\n Identity Digital, formerly Donuts, raised $100 million to apply for\n hundreds of top-level domains in 2012. In the years since, they’ve\n bought up other registries to grow their portfolio, which includes the\n TLDs .email, .lgbt, .studio, and .wtf. I even own some of their domains,\n like{\" \"}\n weeksofyour.life. Other\n notable registries include Google with 46 TLDs; Amazon with 51; and XYZ\n with 35.\n

920

\n The RFC that established the initial set of top-level domains.\n

\n In 1984 Jon Postel and Joyce Reynolds wrote RFC 920, “Domain\n Requirements,” defining the first TLDs: .com , .org, .gov, .edu, and\n .mil. While .gov, .edu, and .mil are still semantically enforced, .com\n is by now totally detached from its original purpose as a commercial\n namespace. Same goes for .net, added shortly after the RFC was\n published, originally meant for internet{\" \"}\n infrastructure.\n

1,595

\n Top-level domains delegated to the root zone.\n

\n As of today, there are{\" \"}\n \n 1,595 top-level domains in the DNS root\n . Of those, 316 are ccTLDs and 1,250 are gTLDs (g for generic). The\n generics break down further into brand TLDs, like .netflix and .google;\n geoTLDs, like .nyc and .paris; community TLDs, like .kids; and regular\n ole generics for you and me to buy, like .dev and .press (oh, hey). And\n since this is all about numbers, the audit-minded among you may have\n noticed that my math doesn’t yet tie: there are also a handful of\n generic-restricted, sponsored, infrastructure, and test TLDs.\n

1985

\n The year the first domain, symbolics.com, was registered.\n

\n On March 15, 1985 a computer company named Symbolics registered\n symbolics.com. It is the first and longest tenured domain, although it\n changed hands in 2009.\n

$4,000

\n ICANN’s annual accreditation fee for registrars.\n

\n GoDaddy, Porkbun, Squarespace, Cloudflare, et al. pay $4,000 per year to\n ICANN. That doesn’t seem like much, and how many registrars could there\n even be, right? 3,023. There are 3,023 accredited registrars. Credit\n ~$12 million in ICANN’s annual revenue column.\n

$6,006.13

\n \n How much Google paid for google.com when they forgot to renew it.\n \n

\n In 2015, Google accidentally let google.com expire, and ex-Googler\n Sanmay Ved purchased it right there on Google Domains\n (RIP) for just $12\n at 1:20am. He owned it for all of one minute before Google reversed the\n transaction. Google paid him $6,006.13 for the ordeal because the number\n “spelled-out Google, numerically (squint a little and you’ll see it!).”\n

8.8.8.8

\n The IP address of Google’s public DNS resolver.\n

\n As review: when you plunk a domain name into your browser’s address bar,\n it goes to find the IP address behind the domain. A DNS{\" \"}\n resolver{\" \"}\n is the program that does this, like an internet phone book. Cloudflare\n has one, too, with an even cooler IP: 1.1.1.1.\n

$227,000

\n ICANN’s base application fee for the 2026 gTLD round.\n

\n Right now, until August 12, anyone can apply to create a new top-level\n domain. Corporates can apply to own their .brand, cities can apply to\n run their .geo, and registries can apply to sell .whatever to the\n general public. It’s the first chance to apply since 2012. ICANN\n facilates the process, running it on a cost recovery basis. $227,000 is\n the base fee, then there are conditional fees and ultimately auctions if\n more than one party is after the same .word. It’s an exciting year for\n domains!\n

$70,000,000

\n The sale price of ai.com.\n

\n The crypto.com founder paid $70 million for ai.com, more than double the\n previous (known) high watermark of $30 million for voice.com. He paid\n fully in crypto, of course, even bought a Superbowl ad and all.\n

$135,000,000

\n The winning bid for .web on July 27, 2016 by Verisign.\n

\n NU DOT CO LLC, secretly bidding on behalf of Verisign, won .web in an\n ICANN auction for $135 million in 2016 (part of the 2012 gTLD round).\n It’s the most any registry has paid for a gTLD in auction (that we know\n of²) and nearly $100 million more than the next highest,\n .shop for $41.5 million. But! As mentioned, this year is the first\n chance to create new gTLDs since 2012, so that record may not stand for\n long. And last week, almost 10 years to the day, Verisign announced that\n .web was finally delegated to the DNS after long legal limbo (i.e.\n disputes from other bidders).\n

401,600,000

\n \n Domain name registrations on the internet at the end of Q2 2026.\n \n

\n I wonder how long it’ll take to reach a billion—and I think we will,\n eventually—considering this number is only ~30 million more than last\n year’s. About 167 million of these are .com (still over 40% of all\n domains!), and nearly 150 million are ccTLDs. In fact, .cn (China) and\n .de (Germany) are second and third, behind only .com (albeit far behind,\n kind of a “how’s the weather up there?” situation).\n

$1,656,600,000

\n Verisign’s annual revenue in 2025.\n

\n Verisign owns .com and .net. They make over a billion and a half dollars\n every year from .com registrations alone. They’re a public\n company—Warren Buffet (Berkshire Hathaway) bought shares starting in\n 2012. Impressively, Verisign reports 100% uptime for .com and .net over\n 28 years.\n

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Footnotes

\n (1) I’m oversimplifying, a bit. There are root name servers, TLD name\n servers, and domain nameservers. So when you type nike.com into a\n browser (ignoring caching), your DNS query would go through a root\n nameserver, then to Verisign’s .com TLD name server, then to Nike’s name\n server, which would return the IP address for their web server.\n

\n (2) In the 2012 gTLD round there were 17 ICANN auctions and about ten\n times as many private auctions. The most notable difference was that in\n private auctions the winner paid out the losers, whereas in ICANN\n auctions the winner paid ICANN.\n