According to a new report from Deloitte Access Economics, Australian domain names (.au) contributed $474.7 million to the economy last financial year.
60,000 new domain names are being registered every month, Deloitte’s probe found, compared to only 6,552 in December 2002. The sector pays out $275.7 million each year in wages, employing 4,330 people.
There were 2.18 million domain names registered in Australia back in August 2011. Topping the charts was .com.au, with 85% of registrations, while .net.au and .org.au followed with 10.99% and 2.33%, respectively (minor extensions make up the remainder.)
53% of all registrations were by companies, 18% by personal websites, 14% by sole traders, registered businesses at 11%, partnerships at 2% and non-profits with just 1%.
Forestry, fishing and agriculture had the weakest web presence, with only 11% of businesses in that industry having a domain. Only 22% of postal, transport and warehousing businesses had acquired names.
According to the probe, large corporations were more likely to have a website, with 90% of companies with 200+ employees having an online presence. Following were businesses of 20-199 employees, with 71% having registered a domain name. Smaller businesses posted worse results, with over half of those with between 5 to 19 employees having an online presence, and just 29% of businesses with between 0 and 4 employees having a registered name.