Domain Names and Digital Strategy

Sheila Bergeron

May 7, 2013

ca au br

cn [Q

1 20

12]

de fr nl no se uk us eu

WO

RLD

AVE.

..

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%Market Share of Major ccTLDs, 2012 (Q2)

2007_Q1

2007_Q2

2007_Q3

2007_Q4

2008_Q1

2008_Q2

2008_Q3

2008_Q4

2009_Q1

2009_Q2

2009_Q3

2009_Q4

2010_Q1

2010_Q2

2010_Q3

2010_Q4

2011_Q1

2011_Q2

2011_Q3

2011_Q4

2012_Q1

2012_Q2

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Global TLD Market Share 2007-2012

gTLDsccTLDs

Quarters

Perc

ent M

arke

t Sha

re

Q2 2007

Q3 2007

Q4 2007

Q1 2008

Q2 2008

Q3 2008

Q4 2008

Q1 2009

Q2 2009

Q3 2009

Q4 2009

Q1 2010

Q2 2010

Q3 2010

Q4 2010

Q1 2011

Q2 2011

Q3 2011

Q4 2011

Q1 2012

Q2 2012

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Canadian TLD Market Share Q2 2007 - Q2 2012

ca Market Share com Market Share net Market Share org Market Share info Market Share biz Market Share

General browsing/surfing

Education (e.g. research)

Entertainment

News/Current events

Banking

Downloading (e.g. music, movies, games, files, etc.)

Shopping

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

14

25

13

37

50

11

41

14

9

15

10

7

13

9

72

66

72

53

43

76

50

Prefer .caPrefer .comIt doesn't matter

13

14

UnaidedRegistrants/Members

n=1,192

Mentions of 2% or greater %

NET Canadian 62It’s Canadian 12I am Canadian/live in Canada 10Canadian recognition/presence/Identity 17Pride in Canada/Pride in being Canadian 4Shows what your location is 4

It’s for a Canadian business/company/organization 17

Prefer Canadian market 6It’s for use by Canadians 7Local/Local audience/Local reference 4It was available 8.com was taken 11Publicity/Promotion 3Easy/convenient/simple 1Trademark protection 7Advised from provider/always recommend .CA 1Registered both .CA and .com 5Easier to find 3Preference/wanted .CA 2It made sense/thought it would be better 4Security reasons/More trustworthy 2

Industry Changes: Current View

317 Total

Domains

295 Country Codes

(e.g. .CA)

23 Generics (e.g. .COM)

11 Testing

Domain Names – The Future

1300 Domains

295 Country

Code

600 Generic 11 Testing

600 Brands

The Canadian Applications

YourBrand.SUCKS

WeSELLin.QUEBEC

New gTLDs and SEO

Relevance+

Value+

Popularity=

Register the domain

Questions from the group: Determining an accredited Canadian Registrar

23

Questions from the group

• Curious about other countries' domain strategies. In your experience, do other countries promote their domains as much as Canada does? Is there a CIRA-type body in every country? Is our drive for .CA partly a feature of the US .COM landscape?

24

25

Questions from the group

• What is the future of the domain name and the .CA brand in general? Is punctuation and misspellings the only way to secure a new brand these days?

26

Questions from the group

• What industry sectors typically benefit most from choosing a .CA domain?

Questions?

• If you think of a question later:– www.cira.ca– @ciranews– @ShebeAB– Sheila.bergeron@cira.ca