Domains within .no

This page shows the number of domain names within .no, how they are distributed among domain name holders, and which types of domain names exist.

Trend in the number of domain names directly within .no

[tabell]

Since the launch of the .no domain in 1983, the number of domain names has grown almost exponentially. The number of active domain names reached 100 in 1991. The number increased roughly tenfold every third year, reaching 1000 in 1995, 10,000 in 1997, 100,000 in 2001, and 500,000 in 2011. Today, the growth rate is somewhat lower. If it remains stable, we will reach one million .no domain names in about 2013. The trend in the number of active domain names is governed by the number of new registrations and the proportion of domain names that are renewed.

Number of domain names per organization

[tabell]

The great majority of domain name holders have only one domain name. The number of organizations that have several domain names is inversely proportional to the number of domain names – that is, a minority of the players control the majority of the resources. This is virtually a "law of nature" which prevails in unregulated resource distribution situations.

Within the .no domain, the distribution of domain names has been regulated to some extent. Until 30 November 2011 each organization could have up to 20 domain names, and certain organizations therefore have a lower number of domain names than the trend line indicates that they would otherwise have had. The graph shows this accumulation as a peak coinciding with the quota limit. In addition, there is a smaller peak at the previous limit of 15 domain names. As from 1 December 2011 the quota has been 100 domain names. After some time we will be able to see whether and how this change will effect the graph.

The quota limit helps to reduce the potential of speculation in domain names. An evaluation of the quota limit scheme shows that it has broad support among users, and that a clear majority consider more benefits than disadvantages with such a scheme.

Domain names with national characters

Number and percentage of domain names with national characters. The majority of such domain names (marked in blue) contain only æ, ø or å in addition to international standard characters. Domain names with at least one of the rarer characters that were permitted at the same time are marked in green. [tabell]

It became possible to register domain names with national characters (æ, ø and å and 20 other characters) in February 2004.