Release of report on the contribution of .au to Australia's economy

Posted by Paul Szyndler on 17 January 2013

A report by Deloitte Access Economics has found that the .au domain has created more than 4300 full-time jobs and contributed $475 million to the Australian economy last year.

The report, “Economic and Statistical Analysis of the .au Domain Range”, was commissioned by auDA and AusRegistry in late 2011.

It is the first report to review .au’s economic value and impact on Australian Internet users, businesses and registrants.

The report revealed exponential growth in the number of registered .au domain names over the last decade, which reached a total of 2.3 million in 2011. This represents a 600% increase since 2002, with 60,000 new .au domains being registered every month.

Activity directly associated with registration and hosting of .au domains accounted for 57%, or $269 million, of the total contribution to Australia’s economy. Services such as web design and infrastructure provision accounted for the balance.
The full version of the report is available here.

A joint media release from Deloitte Access Economics, auDA and AusRegistry is available here .

auDA (.au Domain Administration Ltd) manages the .au domain space under a non-profit, industry self-regulatory model, for the benefit of all Australian Internet users.  Through consultation with industry stakeholders, auDA develops and implements domain name policies for .au. auDA also coordinates .au’s operational frameworks, licenses registry operators and registrars, implements consumer safeguards and facilitates dispute resolution.  auDA plays an active role within the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and other international fora. It represents the interests of .au stakeholders at the global level.

AusRegistry is located in Melbourne, Australia. It is the current Registry Operator and wholesale provider for all commercial domain names including .com.au and .net.au and non-commercial domain names, .gov.au and .edu.au. AusRegistry was first awarded the tender in 2002 and holds a Registry Licence Agreement with the .au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA).

Deloitte Access Economics is Australia’s pre-eminent economics advisory practice and a member of Deloitte's global economics group.  For more information about publications, please visit www.deloitteaccesseconomics.com.au .

For media enquiries contact:
Paul Szyndler
General Manager, Public Affairs
paul.szyndler@auda.org.au
Ph: +61 402 250 389