The Web has been growing by leaps and bounds since its introduction in the 90s. With billions of users worldwide, huge amounts of data are being generated and processed on a daily basis. Individuals from different parts of the world have been using the internet for different reasons – while some use it to accomplish more tasks at home, others are utilizing the internet for their businesses.
The good news is that companies now have the ability to analyze and understand the online landscape and stay on top of trends. Businesses operating in different niches have maximized the features of the World Wide Web and use it to improve their operations. In fact, businesses all around the world have become dependent on the internet for their daily operations, customer service, and employee management.
For instance, businesses can now learn a lot by checking out domain name statistics and WHOIS registration details. In this article, let’s talk about how domain stats and WHOIS records can help businesses and organizations navigate the rapidly changing scene of gTLDs and ccTLDs.
Leveraging Domain Statistics
Through interfaces such as Domain Statistics API, important details are recorded for each registered domain on the Internet. They include the domain registrar, country of origin, type of domain, and more. Each of these sets contains in-depth statistics that can be used for various analyses. These statistics can work as a goldmine of information for you to know how your business can improve. These statistics can give you a better picture of how your business operates and which strategies are appealing to your target market.
To drive the point home, let’s take a look at how they can be useful.
Stats by registrar
Access to information on registrars helps you decide before investing in a domain. Is the provider trustworthy, or did it have negative issues in the past? Checking how established a registrar is should be a priority before making a commitment with them, and ensuring you don’t put your reputation at risk.
Aside from being able to create a strong online presence, the domain registrar you choose to use can significantly affect your image in the business arena. Affiliating your business with a reputable domain registrar will make it very easy for you to leave a positive impression and haul in more customers in the long run. This can also result in a better market share and higher profit.
Stats by country
Which countries have the highest domain registrations in terms of volume? What’s the corresponding market share for a given extension? This information allows making sense of how different niches have evolved on a local basis and identifies room for economic growth in certain areas.
With this information, you can easily determine the reach of your business in different countries. For example, if the stats tell you that more than half of your existing customers are from one country only, you will know better where to focus your marketing efforts moving forward. This information will help you streamline your efforts so you won’t end up spending resources for countries that your business has already reached.
Stats by TLD
Searching for statistics by TLD provides information on the number of registered domains, domains signed with DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) and the total number of those that will soon be removed. These numbers can be used to understand the market share of each TLD.
Exploring Key Points Behind Domains
Now looking at the specifics, what’s the value-added of digging into the stats provided about TLDs? The information, present in WHOIS records that contain registration and expiry dates, as well as owner, registrar, and tech support contact details enable the following activities:
Establishing an online business
When establishing a business online, there are a few imperative points that need to be addressed in the process:
- Selecting and purchasing a domain name
- Making sure it’s not associated with dubious activities or undesirable connotations
- Avoiding intellectual property infringement
The access to WHOIS data allows business owners to check the availability of a selected domain, communicate with relevant parties and negotiate transactions, check the domain history details, and contact registrants as necessary.
This information is necessary to ensure that you won’t end up using a domain name that has been utilized by other businesses. This will prevent your business from facing any legal repercussions in the long run.
Monitoring competitive stakeholders
As the economy grows and the number of business startups increases each year, competition within a given industry can be stiff. Regardless of how helpful you think your products and services are, expect that there are countless other businesses that offer the same. That makes it essential to anticipate the value proposition competitors might introduce in your target market.
Looking up WHOIS data permits viewing how many domains are already registered by your competitors, checking their newly registered domain names and analyzing them, and trying to deduce which move they are likely to make.
Threat hunting
A golden rule on the Internet is that newly registered domains should be considered risky until proven otherwise. This is because cyber criminals frequently switch infrastructure to jump in, cause harm, and get away quickly.
Looking into domain stats and combining this information with WHOIS data will let you keep track of the number of new domains registered lately and spot signs of large-scale phishing attack is being prepared — notably by nation-state hackers.
Through Domain Statistics API, exploring the domain landscape can be an advantage for firms and organizations. Being able to perform queries to acquire domain registration stats and WHOIS records can let companies carry out various the activities needed in developing, growing and securing their business.
About the Author
Jonathan Zhang is the founder and CEO of Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP) — a data, tool, and API provider that specializes in automated threat detection, security analysis and threat intelligence solutions for Fortune 1000 and cyber-security companies. TIP is part of the Whois API Inc. family which is a trusted intelligence vendor by over 50,000 clients. Jonathan can be reached online at jonathan@threatintelligenceplatform.com or jonathan.zhang@whoisxmlapi.com.
