VeriSign recently released their Domain Name Industry Brief and the annual numbers continue to show a growing appetite for new domain name registrations (internet real estate).

The Domain Name Industry closed 2007 with more than 153 million domain name registrations worldwide across all of the Top Level Domain Names (TLDs), an increase of nearly 33 million domain name registrations since the close of 2006.

153 million is an astronomical figure no matter how you look at it. The .com TLD is still without doubt the ‘de facto’ extension on the web with approx 70 million registered names. Good luck finding a new .com name that isn’t totally obscure, mangled or long-winded. The aftermarket for .com’s should continue to experience torrid growth and higher valuations with scarcity becoming an ongoing and growing problem.Localization is also on the rise as country-code TLDs are becoming more and more popular. Part of this localization trend is connected to the scarcity of .com’s ie, 1 million .ca’s vs. 70 million .com’s – this means you are almost certainly going to find better .ca options for a new registration. In addition, both companies and individuals are wanting to brand themselves with a name that resonates within their own country. Germany (.de), China (.cn) and the UK (.co.uk) are currently the 3 largest ccTLDs on the web.

2007 ended with a total base of just over 58 million ccTLD domain name registrations. The ccTLDs as a whole experienced 33 percent growth year over year.

It should be noted that total registered .ca domain names are expected to double over the next 3-4 years (900K today to 1.8M by 2011-12).