Several factors influence domain registration trends, including the latest developments in digital technology, world news, and current events. The WhoisXML API aims to stay on top of these trends, aided by our satellite view of the Domain Name System (DNS). We followed the digital fallout from the russian-ukrainian war two weeks into it and saw how the news was reflected in domain registrations. We also noticed that even the slapping incident at this year’s Oscars drove relevant domain records.
These are just a few examples of domain registration pilots we monitored earlier this year. For Q2 2022, we tracked the digital footsteps of six important drivers in our Q2 2022 Edition Domain Registration Trends Report. These domain registration stimuli can be categorized into Q2-specific and all-time domain registration drivers.
You can download the full report from our website. We have provided an overview of our analyzes and conclusions below.
Q2 Specific Domain Registration Drivers
Celebration Trends
The events that occurred in the second quarter of 2002 were Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, May 8 and June 19, respectively. We tracked related domains added throughout the quarter and noticed spikes in the week leading up to the events. These domains contained the strings “mother” and “father”, alongside “day”. The graph below reflects the trend.
We also looked at the trend of registrations for domains ending in .mom, and the spikes were quite significant. One happened the week before Mother’s Day, while the other happened in the week ending May 21.
News Trends
Another second quarter event was the offer to buy Twitter from Elon Musk and the latter’s subsequent acceptance of said offer on April 25, 2022. The news broke on the Internet and we felt the tremors in the DNS. Domain registrations containing Twitter and Elon Musk have increased significantly this week, as you can see in the following chart.
All-Time Domain Registration Drivers
Seasonal themes
We’ve been tracking domain registration trends related to tax season. Although it started as early as January 24, 2022 and the tax deadline was April 18, 2022, the number of new tax-related areas was higher in Q2 than in Q1. Overall, there seems to be a steady stream of domains registered for tax-related strings over the months.
World event themed inscriptions
The war between Ukraine and Russia has been going on since February, but domain registrations topped pre-war levels in the second quarter. As the war continues, other related areas may be added.
Blockchain Trends
We have been monitoring domain registrations related to cryptocurrencies since last year. In Q2, we added Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and Decentralized Financial Platforms (DeFi) to the list as these technological advancements have steadily become phenomenal. We have focused on areas of cybersquatting targeting the most popular cryptocurrencies, NFTs and DeFi platforms.
The first two weeks of the quarter accounted for most domain registrations. While registrations in the following weeks were erratic, nearly 1,000 new domains were still being added per week until volume began to decline in June.
Industry related records
We mapped the digital footprints of several industries, such as car dealerships and container shipping companies. Yet one of the most significant trends was the relentless threat of ecommerce cybersquatting domains.
In Q2, we found over 16,000 cybersquatting resources targeting some of the most visited online shopping platforms. Registrations consistently topped 1,200 domains per week from the start of the quarter through the first two weeks of June.
Malicious Properties Alert
Since domains and subdomains are among the main vectors for phishing, spam, scams and malware distribution, we also analyzed the misuse properties. Of over 54,000 properties under all record drivers, approximately 2% were malicious. Tax buildings accounted for more than half. The chart below shows how malicious properties were distributed across the six identified recording drivers for Q2 2022.
We will continue to monitor DNS for important domain registration drivers and perform further analysis and contextualization using our WHOIS, IP and DNS intelligence.
If you would like to carry out a similar investigation and analysis, please feel free to Contact us for research collaboration.
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