The latest Domain Name Industry Brief spotlights a new study by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. Titled “The Internet Economy 25 Years After .com: Transforming Commerce & Life,” the study draws on a variety of research sources to gauge the commercial impact of the Internet, in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the first .com domain name registration. With one in four people worldwide estimated to use the Internet today, the report measures the reach of e-commerce in solid terms. For instance, ITIF estimates that the annual global economic benefits of the commercial Internet equal $1.5 trillion — a figure that eclipses the global sales of medicine, investment in renewable energy, and government investment in R&D, combined. ITIF also estimates that, assuming e-commerce continues to grow just half as fast as it grew between 2005 and 2010, then by 2020, it will add $3.8 trillion to the global economy.

The far-reaching ITIF report also provides a snapshot of Internet use and its expanding influence on people throughout the world. Among its findings: 

• In Europe, the percentage of online shoppers grew by 85 percent between 2004 and 2009.
• Experience with online shopping in developing countries is rapidly catching up with that seen in more developed regions. Sixty-three percent of Internet users in Latin American and 70 percent of users in Asia Pacific countries have made at least one purchase online, for example, compared to 85 percent of Internet users in North America and Europe.
• Although online commerce is becoming commonplace worldwide, it’s still more popular in some countries than others. In assessing 30 nations, ITIF found Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States lead the rest of the world in shopping, selling, and doing business online.
• The country with the highest percentage of adult citizens who have shopped online is Japan, with 52 percent.

“As the ITIF study affirms, the commercial Internet has been a transformational force in the world for the past quarter century,” said Raynor Dahlquist, senior vice president of Naming Services at VeriSign. “To ensure it continues to drive the evolution of entire industries, it’s vital to make strategic and continuous investments in the Internet infrastructure. With Project Apollo, VeriSign is building the infrastructure it believes is essential to manage the Internet’s next wave of growth.”

VeriSign publishes the Domain Name Industry Brief to provide Internet users throughout the world with significant statistical and analytical research and data on the domain name industry and the Internet as a whole. Copies of the 2010 first quarter Domain Name Industry Brief, as well as previous reports, can be obtained here.

For more information about all the festivities, check out …yes, a .com http://www.25yearsof.com/

VeriSign’s Domain Name Industry Brief provides a review of the state of the domain name industry, including up-to-date trends in new registrations, renewals, and growth opportunities.

VeriSign publishes the Domain Name Industry Brief to provide Internet users throughout the world with significant statistical and analytical research and data on the domain name industry and the Internet as a whole. Copies of the 2009 fourth quarter Domain Name Industry Brief, as well as previous reports, can be obtained at www.verisign.com/domainbrief.

The official definition of these terms can be found in this glossary and are:

Registry (In the case of .tv, that would be us, VeriSign): An Internet domain name registry is an entity that receives domain name service (DNS) information from domain name registrars, inserts that information into a centralized database and propagates the information in Internet zone files on the Internet so that domain names can be found by users around the world via applications such as the World Wide Web and email.

Said another way, that means that we here at VeriSign manage the database of .tv names (one and only one name per TLD please) and make sure those domain names make it out to the Internet and point the traffic to the right place (e.g., to a web page, or to an email goes to the right place).

Registrar: A registrar provides direct services to domain name registrants. The registrar database contains customer information in addition to the DNS information contained in the registry database. Registrars process name registrations for Internet end-users and then send the necessary DNS information to a registry for entry into the centralized registry database and ultimate propagation over the Internet.

The registry, works with registrars as the channel to end customers. The registrars set end pricing, do the sales and marketing to end customers, often package domain names up with other products and services, and have the systems to do those sales and manage the process. They take payment from those that register the domain name and do customer service for those end customers.

Should you want to get a domain name, or get service for an existing domain name, you should go to a registrar. A complete list of .tv registrars can be found here.

Registrant: The individual or organization that registers a specific domain name with a registrar. This individual or organization holds the right to use that specific domain name for a specified period of time, provided certain conditions are met and the registration fees are paid. This person or organization is the “legal entity” bound by the terms of the Domain Name Registration Agreement with the registrar. Note that the VeriSign registry provides direct services to registrars only, not Internet end-users. The registry database contains only domain name service (DNS) information (domain name, name server names and name server Internet Protocol [IP] numbers) along with the name of the registrar that registered the name and basic transaction data. It does not contain any domain name registrant or contact information. Registrars provide direct services to registrants.

So in a word, this is the customer. Thank you to all the customers of .tv. Some example customers are:

www.mtv.tv: The perfect domain for the European branch of MTV, the home of so many great videos.
www.fora.tv: Get smart fast by browsing this collection of political events, lectures and debates from around the world.
www.mlb.tv: Major League Baseball’s video hub, currently featuring clips and highlights from every team’s 2009 season.
www.beet.tv: One of the leaders of the media revolution with its focus on executive video interviews and strong distribution partnership strategy.
www.justin.tv: The symbolic home of lifestreaming video today it’s the gold-standard for video blogging with over 500,000 individual channels.

Photo via: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lizjones/ / CC BY 2.0