Nearly six million domain names were added to the Internet in the fourth quarter of 2011, bringing the total number of registered domain names to more than 225 million worldwide, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief, published by VeriSign Inc.

The increase of 5.9 million domain names equates to a growth rate of 2.7 per cent over the third quarter of 2011, and marks the fourth straight quarter with greater than 2 per cent growth. Registrations have grown by more than 20.4 million, or 10 per cent, since the fourth quarter of 2010, said the report.

The .com and .net Top Level Domains (TLDs) experienced aggregate growth in the fourth quarter, reaching a combined total of 113.8 million names. This represents approximately a 2 per cent increase in the base over the third quarter of 2011 and an 8 per cent increase over the same quarter in 2010.

New .com and .net registrations totaled 7.9 million during the quarter. This is a 4 per cent increase year-over-year in new registrations. The .com/.net renewal rate for the fourth quarter was 73.5 per cent, up from 73.3 per cent for the third quarter, the report added.

Verisign’s average daily Domain Name System (DNS) query load during the quarter was 64 billion, with a peak of 117 billion. Compared to the previous quarter, the daily average increased 8 per cent and the peak grew 51 per cent.

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