The number of registered Kenyan domains grew by six percent last year to hit 100,420 reversing a decline triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Data shows that the registration grew from 94,526 recorded in 2021, as the sector rebounded following the opening up of the economy from the lockdowns.
The latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that the registrations have recorded a steady growth since 2018 when they stood at 85,744, before hitting the peak of 101,123 registrations in 2020 when companies embraced digital platforms in the wake of Covid-19’s restrictions.
But the numbers dipped in 2021 before the current rebound.
Last year, companies recorded the highest number of applications at 90,000 followed by not-for-profit organisations (1,846), personal websites (1,325), institutions of higher learning (1,079) and lower and middle institutions of learning (931).
Others included government entities (656), blogs (131), network devices (48) and mobile content (32).
“The number of registered Kenyan domains in 2022 rose to 100,420 from 94,526 in 2021. The me.ke domain intended for personal websites and emails, increased at the fastest rate to 1,325 in 2022 from 298 in 2021,” said KNBS in its 2023 edition of the Economic Survey.
“Domain renewal fees remained constant at Sh700 while the number of registrars decreased to 183 in 2022 from 194 in 2021.”
Geoffrey Shimanyula, chairman of Kenya Network Information Centre, which is the agency that handles registrations and issuance of the dot ke domain, told the Business Daily that the seemingly sluggish nature of uptake is anchored on a tendency by users to register for short-term use then discard after the purpose ends.
“It’s not that we haven’t grown, what does happen in this business is that people register a domain name for a specific purpose and when that purpose ends, they forget about it.
So our biggest challenge has been to renew these domains,” he said.
“Out of all the dot ke domains registered as of now, we have only around 80 percent active websites.”
KeNIC took charge of the dot ke domain in 2002 when it had less than 1,000 registrations, taking over from techies Shem Ochuodho from Kenya and Randy Bush from America who previously served as the administrators.
The domain is available for use in variants known as second-level names that include .co.ke for companies, .ac.ke (higher learning institutions), .sc.ke (lower and middle colleges), .or.ke (non-profit organisations), .me.ke (personal names), .mobi.ke (mobile content), .go.ke (government agencies), .info.ke (information), and .ne.ke for network devices.
