Current domains names under management:
| TLD | June 2023 | June 2022 | June 2021 | Change 22 | Change 23 |
| .com.au | 3,148,485 | 3,097,866 | 3,007,531 | 90,335 / 3.0% | 50,619 / 1.6% |
| .au | 762,601 | 172,413 | 0 | 172,413 / na | 590,188 / 342.3% |
| .net.au | 213,276 | 218,245 | 217,508 | 737 / 0.3% | -4,969 / -2.3% |
| .org.au | 72,839 | 75,068 | 74,949 | 119 / 0.2% | -2,229 / -3.0% |
| .id.au | 12,533 | 13,187 | 12,844 | 343 / 2.7% | -654 / -5.0% |
| .asn.au | 2,979 | 3,223 | 3,121 | 102 / 3.3% | -244 / -7.6% |
| Totals | 4,212,713 | 3,580,002 | 3,315,953 | 264,049 / 8.0% | 632,711 / 17.7% |
Total names under management 4,212,713 plus a further 28,267 .gov.au and edu.au domains.
Using the new .au numbers that is a 17.7% increase in the domains under management.
Excluding the .au names would only make a small 1.2% growth in the name space, all thanks to .com.au where as all the others saw a drop in registrations.
Interesting new trend has emerged where .org.au, .id.au and .asn.au are dropping and we fully expect them to drop even more with the introduction of .au domains. With .au you no longer need any of them. Even .org.au is being replaced by .au due to the registration criteria and eligibility are that much simpler and easier.
.au direct growth is impressive ended at 762,601 domains registered. Which is 17.78% of the total names under management or 23.93% when compared to just .com.au registrations. auDA were hoping to get to 20% after 2 years or 3 years, so this number far exceeds their expectations.
Domains Under Management by Registrars
Stats are 3 months behind from the Registry so doing April 2022 – April 2023 comparison.
| Registrar | Apr 2023 | Apr 2022 | Change |
| Crazydomains | 916,102 | 865,347 | 50,755 |
| Godaddy | 892,325 | 738,511 | 153,814 |
| Instra | 719,400 | 612,452 | 106,948 |
| Synergy Wholesale | 638,790 | 467,514 | 171,276 |
| Webcentral | 388,403 | 341,158 | 47,245 |
| Tucows | 148,164 | 134,259 | 13,905 |
| Drop.com.au | 127,812 | 76,414 | 51,398 |
| Melbourne IT | 116,328 | 103,760 | 12,568 |
| CSC | 85,243 | 65,951 | 19,292 |
| Terrific | 18,074 | 14,509 | 3,565 |
| Cheaper Domains | 17,717 | 12,265 | 5,452 |
| Connect West | 16,804 | 18,339 | -1,535 |
| MarkMonitor | 16,063 | 13,671 | 2,392 |
| DDNS | 14,870 | 11,374 | 3,496 |
| Fluccs | 14,738 | 13,487 | 1,251 |
| Micron21 | 11,783 | 2,366 | 9,417 |
| GoHosting | 6460 | 4,418 | 2,042 |
| Westnet | 6086 | 6,787 | -701 |
| Netfleet | 5897 | 7,843 | -1,946 |
| Rebel | 5559 | 5,285 | 274 |
| Wild West Domains | 5807 | 5,045 | 762 |
| Uni Registrar | 3870 | 5,813 | -1,943 |
| Safenames | 2493 | 2,318 | 175 |
| InterNetx | 1839 | 1,916 | -77 |
| Yexa | 1348 | 403 | 945 |
| Information Brokers | 797 | 576 | 221 |
| DomainShield | 670 | 555 | 115 |
| Help.com.au | 192 | 36 | 156 |
The top 5 registrars by growth:
Synergy Wholesale grew by 171,276 domains = 36.6% growth
GoDaddy.com grew by 153,814 domains = 20.8% growth
Instra grew by 106,948 domains = 17.5% growth
DROP.com.au grew by 51,398 domains = 67.3% growth
Crazydomains grew by 50,755 domains = 5.9% growth
Interesting to see the % growth for Crazydomains being so low in comparison to others. And great to see Drop.com.au move up in the rankings to spot 7 with a huge 67.3% growth. Much of the growth is attributed to the launch of .au domains.
Domain Sales and Aftermarket Results
Jul 2022 – Jun 2023 Sales were the best we have seen for any financial year.
Over 200 unique .au domains were Brokered by Drop and Above.com brokerage service, with special mention to Nathan who is a selling machine! If you have generic domains and need help selling, please reach out.
Even if you prefer to sell your domains directly, Above Marketplace clients can use the self serve platform with security and less work as Above handles the payment and CoR process while you still receive the contact details of anyone interested in buying one of your domain names.
The current sale rate is on the improve and from reports of other sales Direct or through other platforms shows a nice sign that sales are up and the average value of a sales is also up.
Normally we list all the domains sales that were over $1000 but this list is getting too large to include. So here is a small sample of such domains.
accessplus.com.au
aera.com.au
automag.com.au
beetle.com.au
booked.com.au
booknow.com.au
duress.com.au
envirotech.com.au
g1.com.au
glaziers.au
hok.com.au
loanz.com.au
loanz.au
ltsa.com.au
neon.au
nts.au
oak.com.au
oak.au
poolz.com.au
privatelenders.com.au
propeller.com.au
propeller.au
really.com.au
replay.com.au
simplicity.au
startfinance.com.au
trady.com.au
tree.com.au
untangled.com.au
auDA Policies and Enforcement Issues
auDA has seen it share of complaints and for the last 12 months it has seen even more. Eligibility, cancelled ABN/ACN complaints, and even industry complaints highlighting serious issues with many registrars from not being ISO certified to failing to meet basic auDA polices for allowing cancelled entities renew domain names while not eligible.
Unfortunately auDA are not following their own polices, instead auDA have drafted a Compliance Posture statement that they made up what we feel illegally, that they now apply to ignore all Policies. If you make a noise you get hit, while others blatantly ignore the rules and get absolutely no punishment. Reeks of double standards at auDA. Something that the auDA CEO and the board should be concerned of and seriously reconsider as when Industry law suits start, their reputations may be at stake.
Some serious changes are needed at auDA board management, their unwillingness to follow their own policies receives a vote of no confidence from us. A bigger story is in the making on this front.
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