Internet Grows to 280 Million Domain Names in the Second Quarter of 2014

RESTON, VA--(Marketwired - Dec 2, 2014) - VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), a global leader in domain names and Internet security, today announced four million domain names were added to the Internet in the second quarter of 2014, bringing the total number of registered domain names to 280 million worldwide across all top-level domains (TLDs) as of June 30, 2014, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief.

The increase of four million domain names globally equates to a growth rate of 1.4 percent over the first quarter of 2014. Worldwide registrations have grown by 18.6 million, or 7.2 percent, year over year.

The .com and .net TLDs experienced aggregate growth in the second quarter of 2014, reaching a combined total of approximately 128.9 million domain names in the adjusted zone for .com and .net. This represents a 3.7 percent increase year over year. As of June 30, 2014, the base of registered names in .com equaled 113.7 million names, while .net equaled 15.2 million names.

New .com and .net registrations totaled 8.5 million during the second quarter of 2014. In the second quarter of 2013, new .com and .net registrations totaled 8.7 million.

During the second quarter of 2014, Verisign's average daily Domain Name System (DNS) query load was 95 billion across all TLDs operated by Verisign, with a peak of 204 billion. Compared to the previous quarter, the daily average increased 11.7 percent and the peak increased 70.4 percent. Year over year, the daily average query load increased 18.8 percent and the peak query load decreased 16.6 percent.

As more people and "things" are going online, the world will become even more connected through the Internet, sharing information and data that has the potential to transform the way we live and work. This quarter's featured article, "Get Ready DNS: Here Comes the Internet of Things," highlights the critical need to protect the devices and applications we use to connect to the Internet from security threats.

Verisign publishes the Domain Name Industry Brief to provide Internet users throughout the world with statistical and analytical research and data on the domain name industry. Copies of the 2014 second quarter Domain Name Industry Brief, as well as previous reports, can be obtained at VerisignInc.com/DNIB.

About Verisign
As a global leader in domain names and Internet security, Verisign powers the invisible navigation that takes people to where they want to go on the Internet. For more than 15 years, Verisign has operated the infrastructure for a portfolio of top-level domains that today includes .com, .net, .tv, .edu, .gov, .jobs, .name, and .cc, as well as two of the world's 13 Internet root servers. Verisign's product suite also includes Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Protection Services, iDefense Security Intelligence Services and Managed DNS. To learn more about what it means to be Powered by Verisign, please visit VerisignInc.com.