The .mobi Zone File -- Analyzed and Compared

The impact of .mobi “landrush” renewals on zone file size

Why is the size of the .mobi zone file currently lower than its historical high? What this means for the future of the .mobi domain?.

To address these questions, here’s a comparison the performance of .mobi with other domains at a similar point in their histories.

.info

The most directly comparable TLD is .info, which was launched in 2001 and had its landrush renewals due in 2003. In the chart below, you can see the initial growth over the first two years was halted, and sharply reversed, by the renewals from .info domains purchased during the initial landrush period.

.biz

Another TLD that launched in the same period was .biz. Looking at that domain, you can see a very similar graph and like .info, on the anniversary of the initial two-year renewals, there is a steep decline in the number of domains in the zone file. Note that the percentage drop is almost identical between .info and .biz.

.asia

Having looked at two of the most recent gTLDs launches, let’s look at a recent country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) launch to see if similar patterns emerge.

In the graph below is the performance of .asia since its launch. Once again, in the first renewal period, is the now-familiar dip in the domains under management.
 

.eu

And look at the performance of .eu. It launched around the same time as .mobi and provides a close comparison. Per the chart below, there is a significant decline of 8.5% in April 2007 when the first renewals occurred and then a smaller reduction of 4.1% in April 2008 at the second anniversary. The .mobi domain was initially offered with only a two-year registration, so a direct comparison should be drawn over the two-year period which shows a decline in .eu of 12.6%

.mobi

At this point, it's evident that .mobi has followed the same trend. What’s surprising is how closely the results of these different domains mirror one another.

First, here is the graph of the .mobi domain count since launch with the now-expected dip around the time for renewals of registrations made at landrush (September 2006).

Relative Performance

When charting the relative decline of each of these domains from its initial high point to the low around the first renewal period, what is striking is that the relative decline in every case is almost identical. The maturity of the Internet and the wildly different background economic conditions make no difference, despite the very different nature and target audience of these domains. 

Given that this slight downturn in the size of the zone file is expected -- no matter the domain -- a more important metric to use in evaluating the health of a domain is the number and quality of “new creates” (rather than renewals of existing domains.)

The graph below shows .mobi is growing in new creates over the past year, which shows continuing support of, and investment in, the domain. Combined with the overall strength and growth of the mobile Web, this growth shows that the Internet community is embracing the mobile Web in general -- and .mobi in particular --  and 2010 is likely to be a period of exceptional growth for both.

For other articles about the .mobi domain click here.