Tanzania and Rwanda improved the most since the last version of the study. South Africa remains on top.
ICANN has published an updated version of a study first conducted between 2016-2017, which arrives at an overall score for “success in the DNS ecosystem” for each African nation.
ICANN has published an updated version of a study first conducted between 2016-2017 (South African Communications Report/ICANN, The African Domain Name System Market Study, Final Report, 2017-06-06: icann.org), which arrives at an overall score for “success in the DNS ecosystem” for each African nation. The study goes far beyond a simple domain count for each of the continent’s ccTLD and considers domain price, number of registrars and internet penetration in the country.
Tanzania’s digital leap: infrastructure and government policies drive Top 10 entry
Having conducted the same scoring system on two occasions provides an opportunity to track growth in these areas, a fact that ICANN notes in the study conclusions. The biggest gains were from Tanzania and Rwanda, both of which rose seven spots in the overall rankings. In the case of Tanzania, ICANN highlights specific government initiatives that contributed to the higher score in this iteration of the study. For instance, the study reveals that Tanzania has entered the African Top 10, rising 7 places due to government efforts to expand broadband through the National ICT Broadband Backbone and mobile network operators’ fibre backbone projects. The country has three undersea cables, with two operational and one set for early 2024. A well-managed ccTLD and Internet Exchange Point, initially funded by the regulator and now operated by the ISP Association, support Internet infrastructure. Successful eGovernment initiatives and new commercial data centers have increased Internet usage and domain name services. However, policy issues like VPN registration and Internet monitoring have impacted domain uptake (see para. 63.5., p. 144).
South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya form the Top 3 countries overall, faring well in most or all the metrics used. The lowest ranking countries were those with little access to the internet, with unclear use and availability of domain registration under the country’s ccTLD.
The consequences of free domain models in African ccTLDs
ICANN paid specific attention to the “Freenom effect,” by which free domain name registrations under the ccTLDs of Mali, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, and Gabon led to inflated numbers of active domains (see para. 5.3.3., p. 112). This ICANN report considers free domains as not advisable because they come with significant drawbacks. Registrants have no rights to the domain, and popular or unpopular sites can be taken over by the provider without notice or compensation, with the content replaced by ads. This “freemium” model is common among free domain providers like Freenom. Free domains also attract malicious activities such as phishing scams. Due to their poor reputation, achieving good search engine rankings with a free domain is difficult. Additionally, according to the report, free domain providers often offer hosting services, directing revenue and growth opportunities overseas instead of benefiting the local economy. The report adds that ICANN terminated Freenom’s registration as a registrar in November 2023 (para. 5.4.1, p. 117). The other metrics used by ICANN were given equal weight to the strict domain count and none of these countries ranked higher than 16 out of 54 countries evaluated (Mali).
The effect of “domain hacks” was analyzed, not only as an explanation for higher registration volume from abroad, but also in the context of unrealized potential. For example, Libya’s .ly has successfully leveraged the fact that many English words end in -LY (see Report, p.113), while Eritrea’s .er has the same advantage, but has not capitalized on it (see para. 6.4.1., p. 149).
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Whether you are a disk jockey looking to register a domain hack in Djibouti, or an IP advisor looking to refine your defensive registration strategy in Africa, IP Twins is here to help. Feel free to drop us a line at juristes@iptwins.com to ask any questions about domain name registration in Africa.
Source: PowerSoft Africa, 2023 Africa Domain Name Industry Study, May 2024 (a report commissioned by ICANN).
