South Africa’s Internet namespace has surpassed 1.2 million name registrations across all the Second Level Domains (SLDs) registered and administered by the ZA Central Registry NPC (ZACR), namely co.za, web.za, net.za and org.za.

ZACR is the administrator of South Africa’s presence on the worldwide web. In addition to the above-mentioned SLDs, ZACR has also registered a total of three SA cities’ Geographic Top Level Domains (gTLDs): .joburg ('dotJoburg'), .capetown ('dotCapeTown') and .durban ('dotDurban'). The 30-year Registry Operator veteran has furthermore secured the prestigious .africa (‘dotAfrica’) gTLD.

“South Africa‘s SLDs, with their impressive 1.2 million total registrations, have cemented .ZA‘s standing as one of the world’s most popular namespaces and successfully capped ZACR‘s third decade serving the South African and global Internet consumer,” says ZACR CEO, Lucky Masilela. The co.za SLD alone currently has over 1 117 000 registrations.

South Africa, a country of 57 million people, is the leading domain name market on the continent with over 1.2 million registrations of domain names. By way of comparison, Nigeria, a country of 190 million people, has notched up 102 000 registrations within its .ng country code domain name.

Mr Masilela puts the runaway success of co.za down to the globally proven “Triple R” model adopted in 2010 and to which the local domain name sector continues to adhere, with clearly obvious and positive results. The Triple R Model is based on the separation of functions and responsibilities by the Regulator the Registry Operator and the Registrar.

“Our current model is the reason South Africa boasts the highest number of Africa’s domain name registrations coupled with our intention to keep the domain costs as low as possible on the continent,” explains Mr. Masilela.

The ZACR as the Central Registry responsible for the technical wellbeing of South Africa’s presence on the worldwide web, the dozens of Registrars that interface with domain name Registrants, and the ZA Domain Name Authority (ZADNA) as the government-appointed industry regulator, have created a local Domain Name System (DNS) industry that is the envy of much of the world.

The highly-effective Central Registry model championed by the late Communications Minister, Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, has emerged as a local centre of excellence of which all South Africans can be proud. 
 

ZACR has a solid history of pioneering achievements within the domain name sector. It is a previous winner of the Best African Registry category awarded by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and was recently awarded the rights to administer the entire African continent’s presence on the worldwide web in the form of the .africa (dotAfrica) geographic Top Level Domain (gTLD).

“Every leading local brand has to register a co.za domain name or risk losing valuable IP and cyber real estate to competitors, speculators or worse,” concludes Mr Masilela.