There are over 2 million registered .in domain names.
The IN Registry the official registry for the .in ccTLD domain extension for India has started to post registrations stats on their site showing the number of .in registered domain names.
I’m told the registry put the stats up last week for the first time.
As you can see the registry is reporting a number that does not seem formatted correctly at least by Western standards.
“”Total number of IN domains # 20,67,508”
However according to Wikipedia.org, the Indian numbering system, 20,67,508 is like 2,067,508 as Indians don’t use the millions in numbering system, the use ones, tens, thousands, followed by lakh .. 10 lakhs is equal to one million )
Makes senses in that CENTR who reports on the number of domain names in the world including country code domain extensions like .in, does not have .in in the top 10 ccTLD’s.
According to the last CENTR report it took 2.9 million domain names to make the top 10 ccTLD list (.it for Italy was number 10)
Don’t be baited into this one people are pumping 4L.in buyout just like 5L.con buyout in order to get in, and flip out for a higher cost.
To many pump and dump schemes going down, whose going to buy 2.5M of the 5L crap when ppl dump in sept???
Trevor, advise you to make such libelous posts with (at least) some proof or else kindly shush up because the article is actually talking about official stats that were published by NIXI (.in Registry) for the first time in almost over a decade.
.in & .co.in are the official TLDs of “one of the largest democracy in the world and most populated country” around and I still feel these numbers are quite low in comparison. Huge bump is yet to come, sometime later this year as we see numerous initiatives from the Government of India promoting Internet among masses and of course our own initiative at DomainX Events (from Domain Name Owners Association of India) to promote domain names in the country.
Be positive & let .in shine!
Manmeet P Singh
President – Domain Name Owners Association of India
Hi Manmeet, how many .com registrants are there in India? Is there a website where I can track this? Looking at most visaited websites in India many are .com websites with local content like timesofindia.com etc.
http://www.webhosting.info/ has some info regarding registrars and hosting companies from India, but that doesn’t equate to registrants from India.
Trevor,
I think you are discussing something irrelevant , Michael here pointing out the number of .IN registrations are crossed over 2 million. Thats the fact. What you are talking is off-topic.
In terms of 4L.in chips buyout , yes its less than 130K registrations ( as 30k of them are registered much before this buyout aspect). Do you think this 130 k make a huge difference? Do you think a big country like India having 1.3 billion ( almost 18% of world population) population and the fastest growing economy in the world , is anything wrong to have 2 million registrations? Its too little compare , in next 3 years .IN will be the top 5 CCTLDs. Its not about what it was , what it is and what it will be in future, that matters from Investment point of view.
I am only requesting you to have the facts before commenting in such a way. Lot many other extensions who do not have any user base has , complete 4.in buyout . those are risky investments , not 4l.in domains. I believe you are still living in the old world thinking India is still a poor country. Even i am receiving 10 USD offers on my 4l.com names too from around the world , do you think I will sell them because i have 10 USD offers on my 4l.com names? Will you selling for 10 USD offers you are receiving .. we all will wait to get the right buyer. What you are saying is not fair .. just think before answering to my comments. If you still believe you made a fair comment, thats absolutely ok.
who is telling anyone to register or buy ” 4L.in buyout just like 5L.con buyout in order to get in, and flip out for a higher cost.”?
Have you forgotten waking up to dozens of $10 offers for domain purchases from India each morning? You would delete, or counter to $12 counters max offers.
Maybe you need to dig a bit further, into some of the recent regs of those 2M to see what is really behind them.
I hear you Trevor… the Indian market has been terribly slow to understand the value of domains in general because internet penetration has been so low. Many smart early investors have grown frustrated and tired and some have left .in behind. However, imho we are on the cusp of a boom as internet infrastructure is expanding rapidly and more Indians coming online than ever. I think this will change very quickly and I have already started to see much better offers on domains and decent sales to end users who are starting to get the picture.
Michael,
thank you so much posting about .IN . I must tell .IN will be one the strong CCTLDs of the future, it is always good to about a growing extension. Its a well deserved post like any other extensions which has crossed 2 million, you did a brilliant job.
Good info Michael for posting the update from IN registry. For many of us who have invested in .in domains since 2005, its a long time coming. The growth has been slow but steady over the years and maybe now we are hitting a growth spurt. Many factors are coming together to cause this : Increase awareness of domain names in India, Godaddy and other registrars getting more active in advertising, Amazon expecting to invest billions in the Indian market (they had issues in China and dont want to repeat those in India – they are expecting ecommerce market to be in trillion dollars not rupees), Internet penetration still at very low levels (maybe 15% of the population, India would be the largest English speaking population online soon.
I don’t see any obstacles in .in domain names reaching the Top 10 list, maybe reaching Top 5 in the next 5 years.
While around $150k 4l.in registrations were added recently, they don’t make overall picture. Maybe year ago it was still possible to buy many good keyword .in domains for regfee, now they all gone. Lot of newcomers investing in .ins, lot of daily end user registrations. Lot of $xx-$x,xxx reseller sales as well.
No $150k but simply 150k lol
A crore (/ˈkrɔər/; abbreviated cr) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to ten million (10,000,000; in scientific notation: 107). It is widely used in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, and is written in these regions as 1,00,00,000 with the local style of digit group separators. It is equal to a hundred lakh (a lakh is equal to one hundred thousand and is written as 1,00,000)
Crore About 27,900,000 results (0.44 seconds)
.com showed the other TLDs the way. And technology is an,enabler for developing countries to catch up. Why make .in your enemy when she can be your girl? .in wasn’t going to reach 4M regs and 4ls would still be available right? You’re just impatient and expecting too much too fast. Stick with this cheap, high value, nothing-can-hold extension. Its a cheap,investment so what you nagging for? Also is .in only about 4l.in? You’ve missed the nnn.co.in profit story…and the 3l .co.I. Buyout that switched it up again. 4n.co.ins all,gone….let’s wait till next year to really see if u think its a pump and dump or just a take your profit and move on game? Money is still money so why not just swim in it? Just gimme 1 reason .In won’t win? I don’t think there is 1 good reason. Thanks Michael for the article today. If you open your eyes and go by fundamentals you realize there are steals all over the place.
They do sell in the secondary markets as well. And as the Indian SMEs are becoming richer, the internal market does grow as well.
Well said, your words matters a lot as you track the sales closely. I have noticed several sales happening every day. Lot of after market activity. .IN rise has just began, its all about fundamentals.
1) High Branding opportunities (. Nternational,.INternet , .INvestment , .INc, .INfo, .INsurance, .Independent , .Indian . .Ink , just .IN.. what not .Infinite )
2) Low registration and renewal costs ( 3 USD to register and 6.5 USD to renew )
3) Fastest growing economoy
4) low internet penetration and highest penetration rate happening now
5) Government and NIXI are promoting .IN use in India . Digital India is a good initiative .
6) Startup echo system friendly
7) highest population , English is a common business language in India so easy for western companies to penetrate easily into India
8) .IN is open for all . SEO friendly , I have noticed .IN usage
….. I can keep listing 100’s of reasons… I can write a book on why .IN is attractive extension compare to many other CCTLDs we have .
In all my opinion .IN will grow and will be the top 5 CCTLDs in next 3 years .
Ignoring .IN extension is as good as ignoring INDIA’s potential.
Very biased comments. Not surprised coming from someone with vested interests.
To counter your points.
1) With the rollout of so many gtlds, there is no need for .in to be so many things. I have yet to see one website or domain used where the .in was meant to be used as any of the words you mentioned.
You’re just making things up to prove your point.
2) How should price affect the decision to for .in when the .com is around the same cost.?
3) Irrelevant. .com still preferred in 90% of cases
4)”
5)Government is not promoting .in use. Digital India is not about using a .in extension and nowhere mentions using a .in
6) Startups prefer .com most of the time. ( Take a look at the last 100 startups funded in India and pay attention to their website extension)
7) None of that matters when .com is the obvious choice for the average Indian joe.
8) ”
In my opinion .in will meet the same fate as .us
In both cases end users prefer opting for the .com.
This is the ground reality.
How is the .in extension correlated to India’s potential?
India will do just fine using .com. Ignoring .in does NOT mean ignoring India’s potential
Here is an answer to a question by one of India’s top digital marketers.
https://www.quora.com/As-an-Indian-startup-should-I-be-getting-a-in-or-a-com-as-my-main-domain-name
1) When you do local business, ccTLD makes more sense. Both in terms of branding and seo.
2) .com is way too expensive for small businesses and startups.
3) Build a .in portfolio and you will see 🙂
Using Unbiased doesnt make you really “Unbiased”, I have given value to your comments specially if you could have shown who you are to others instead of using a Proxy name, that itself is showing what kind of biasedness you have.
In terms of comparison between .COM and .IN , every one across globe prefer to use .COM as a first choice , I never said .COM will not be chosen .. What is the value of LLL.com avg price it could be around mid xxxxx usd .. India has many millions of SMEs , do you think enough .COM names are available as a good brand for these SME’s who cant afford to pay higher prices.. .COM has 125 million plus registrations where as as .IN has 2 million registrations, there is a plenty of choice for the users to pick up the names of their choice at registration prices. If you are unaware the various startups getting started please refer the startup websites, you can notice plenty of start ups using .IN names. already its around 50% .IN names vs 50% .COMs. In terms of other GTLDs , they are thrash … the moment you brought in GTLDs into the comparison You honestly lost your argument and showing you are the one his hiding and promoting new GTLDs. Thats only a distant dream for anyone to promote new GTLDs in India..
Comparing to .US to .IN is showing how knowledgeable you are about India. By default government websites are launched on .gov.in , educational institutions websites are launched on .edu.in , non profitable orgs use .org.in , per example military .mil.in .. those are the standards , thats good enough to promote .IN usage in India…
Even orgs start by .COM , they cant ignore to register .In as .IN is more essential in India than .COM . Its good to launch on .COM and however cant ignore .IN too.
You are talking about the past and not looking at the future.. only answer you will get is in future. Please wait for a year or two years to change your opinion. I mean it.
The .in extension is definitely is on the rise. In the past few, I have many frequent inquiries and sales when compared to the other extensions in my portfolio on a average. I admit that I hassle to much about my .com price, hence sell less of them. However, I have received very high returns on my .IN investment Normally, I do not sell anything .IN under $1000, and hence the purchase prices have certainly gone up a quite a bit, as the Indian market has been growing exponentially, and the Indians purchasing power has also increased considerably. It is surprising to note that many are yet to realize that India is the next big thing after China. Michael, many thanks for this story of .IN registrations, hope other blogs/sites will follow you.
Possibly .IN was pushed above the 2 million mark by speculation on Chinese-style “liquid” domains – the kind of “token market” we’ve seen spill over into everything from .TOP and .RED to .XYZ and .PET.
But that short-term burst comes after years of slow but healthy growth. So it it’s a comparatively minor part of .IN’s story. Ultimately .IN won’t be about CHIPs and numerical domains; it will be a keyword-based, full of brandables, aiming at a domestic audience.
Remember, India designs our websites, builds our apps, writes our software, and answers our customer questions. English is widely spoken – which means India, unlike China, can address a global audience. Venture capital is taking root. Plus, India is about to overtake China as the largest nation on earth.
The aftermarket for .IN has been disappointingly slow to mature, but mature it will.
Great, I added my comments to the Quora question
https://www.quora.com/As-an-Indian-startup-should-I-be-getting-a-in-or-a-com-as-my-main-domain-name
Here it is:
The short answer is get both if available. Having invested in .com and .in domain names since 1998, can tell you its near impossible to find right .com domain names for your business.
Its not just about your business name or brand, its also about the Keywords that you would need for any online business. .com keywords in several categories and one word domain names are running close to a million dollars. In comparison, .in keyword domain names can be purchased at about 10% of .com keywords.
Sure, you want to target the whole world, .com is best , but remember you want to start with the .in and work you way up to be able to purchase the .com keywords. This is if you want to use Organic growth from search engines (preferred method) or you will be spending tons of ad dollars.
So, its not about patriotic reasons as much as being practical. There isn’t any CONS in using a .in domain name, heck if you are in India, its not a secret , you could still cater to customers globally.
In conclusion, get the .IN and .COM version of your company name and also acquire keyword domains in .IN and .COM (related to your business), because they will be the most valuable investment long term. Good luck
I’ve never really been a big .in investor. I think I might have invested in 20 total since 2005. It’s nice to see that the ccTLD built up some traction and holding some market value. It almost makes me want to go research some .in’s to buy again. Almost! 😉 – Maybe next week.
Sold over 1000 .co.in/.in over the years but the major stand out factor is thst probably 98% + were to reselling domainers and that has remained almost constant over time.
The Indian startups/ online companies seemed,and still seem to be loathe, to put money in to achieving a recognisable online presence. Until acceptance of the benefits of using a “good” domain name becomes the norm (a long way off I think) then the Indian namespace will remain an also ran.
And the past attitude of the .in registry in lack of promotion and most definite lack of transparency have been very negative factors.
I still remember when we purchase few while the launch.. its good to see .in is growing at a good speed.
.in is gonna be big , i’ll be investing in some indian domains for sure. what’s not to love….. the 2nd most populous nation on earth(at the moment) & they love the English language. oh yeah, .in is where it’s at.