June 7, 2007 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Registry operator VeriSign (verisign.com) announced on Wednesday it has released the VeriSign Domain Name Industry Brief for the first quarter of 2007, which highlights key industry data for worldwide domain name activity.

In the report, the total domain name registrations reached 128 million, representing a 31 percent increase over the same quarter in the previous year, and a 6 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2006. New domain name registrations, in turn, reached 10.7 million during the first quarter of 2007. Conversely, the first quarter of 2007's new registrations dropped 8 percent quarter-over-quarter, but showed a 25 percent year-over-year increase.

Country code top level domain names increased 33 percent year-over-year to 45.7 million, and 5 percent from the previous quarter. Though the approximately 2 million new ccTLD registrations totaled just roughly half of the record-breaking ccTLDs added last quarter, the number reflects an 86 percent increase from ccTLD registrations year-over-year.

VeriSign processed approximately 7 million new registrations for .com and .net domain names in the first quarter of 2007, representing a 13 percent increase over the fourth quarter 2006 and a 13 percent increase over the first quarter 2006. At the close of the first quarter, the domain registry counted 69 million .com and .net domain name registrations in the base, representing a 6 percent increase in the first quarter 2007 compared to the fourth quarter 2006, and a 28 percent increase year-over-year.

VeriSign announced last week that its board of directors has elected William A. Roper, Jr. as president and CEO.

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