Page History

Purpose: ICANN seeks 1) Community input on the "gTLD Marketplace Health Index (Beta)" and, 2) Additional community volunteers for Advisory Panel that will work with staff to refine/expand metrics in gTLD Marketplace Health Index (Beta).

Current Status: "gTLD Marketplace Health Index (Beta)" published for public comment.

Next Steps: ICANN will work with community volunteers (advisory panel) to refine/expand metrics to track the evolution of the gTLD Marketplace.

The gTLD Marketplace Health Index originated from the cross-organizational ICANN Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Dashboard. The "gTLD Marketplace Health Index" will furtherICANN's goal (number 2.3) of supporting the evolution of the gTLD marketplace to be robust, stable and trusted. The index analyzes the overall health and diversity of the globalgTLD marketplace.

ICANN seeks community input to expand and refine the "gTLD Marketplace Health Index (Beta) [PDF, 2.37 MB]."

ICANN solicited community feedback in 2015 on a set of candidate concepts for gTLDmarketplace metrics focused on (a) robust competition, (b) marketplace stability, and (c) trust.

ICANN then worked with a group of community volunteers (the Advisory Panel) and an outside consultant to refine the list of potential concepts in response to public comments. The "gTLD Marketplace Health Index (Beta)" comprises these concepts and their current data points. ICANN hopes that this set of preliminary data will spark continued collaboration on the initiative and ground abstract discussions surrounding gTLD marketplace health into concrete, implementable concepts.

The initial set of metrics is listed below (organized by category). The current plan is to report on these in six-month increments, unless otherwise noted.

Robust Competition

1. Percentage of distinct ICANN-accredited gTLD registrars, by ICANN region.
2. Number of jurisdictions with at least one ICANN-accredited registrar.
3. Percentage of distinct ICANN-accredited gTLD registry operators, by ICANNregion.
4. Number of jurisdictions with at least one ICANN-accredited registry operator.
5. Percentage of gTLD registrars that are distinct entities (counting one per family).
6. Average number of gTLD registrar accreditations per registrar family.
7. Percentage of gTLD registry operators that are distinct entities (counting one per family).
8. Average number of gTLD registries held by each gTLD registry parent company.
9. Total number of second-level domain names registered in gTLDs.
10. Year-over-year growth rates in second-level domain names registered in gTLDs.
11. Total number of second-level domain names registered in Internationalized gTLDs (IDNs).
12. Total second-level domain name additions in all gTLDs.
13. Year-over-year growth rates for second-level domain name additions.
14. Second-level domain name additions, broken down into the following categories: legacy gTLDs, new gTLDs, IDNs, .brands, and geographic gTLDs, plus year-over-year growth rates for each of these categories.
15. Second-level domain name deletions in gTLDs, plus year-over-year growth rates for second-level domain name deletions.
16. Second-level domain name deletion percentages in gTLDs (the percentage of total second-level domain names deleted) broken down into the following categories: total gTLDs, legacy gTLDs, new gTLDs, IDN gTLDs, .brands, and geographic gTLDs.

Marketplace Stability

1. Number of gTLD registrars newly accredited.
2. Number of gTLD registrars disaccredited (divided out by voluntary and involuntary accreditations revoked).

Trust

1. Number of involuntary gTLD registrar terminations (related to accreditations revoked involuntarily).
2. WHOIS Accuracy rates detected by ICANN WHOIS Accuracy Reporting System.
3. Number of UDRP and URS complaints decided against second-level gTLDregistrants (annual total plus percentage of cases filed).

The "gTLD Marketplace Health Index (Beta)" includes anonymous, high-level data aboutgTLD registry operators, registrars and registrants, which ICANN collects for business purposes. There are many other potential sources of data to consider as ICANN and the community collaborate in developing additional metrics that can be used to quantify the health of the marketplace. We hope that the "gTLD Marketplace Health Index (Beta)" [PDF, 2.37 MB] and our set of proposed discussion topics regarding additional metrics included in the report will serve as a basis for further discussion.

Following the close of the public comment period, ICANN will continue to work with the Advisory Panel, convened in early 2016, to refine and expand these metrics in response to community feedback. ICANN anticipates convening regular meetings with the Advisory Panel throughout the development process for the next iteration of gTLD Marketplace Health Index. If you are interested in becoming a panel member, visithttps://mm.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/gtldmarketplace to subscribe to the Advisory Panel's email list.

• gTLD Marketplace Health Index (Beta) [PDF, 2.37 MB]
• Bhargava, H. (2016). An Economic Evaluation of gTLD Performance Metrics [PDF, 351 KB].
• gTLD Marketplace Health Index Proposal: Call for Comments and Volunteers (2015)