The .CA Domain Hits Two Million Internet Addresses

Today, Thursday November 22nd, 2012, marks a monumental day for the .CA domain. On this date, the .CA domain hit two million registrations. This is a big achievement for all Canadians everywhere as we celebrate an important milestone of Canadian presence on the web. In the early days of the internet, no one expected the .CA domain to be this pervasive. With steady growth and an influx of tech-savvy Canadians, the .CA domain has become the seventeenth largest internet domain name registry when compared to names like.COM and country specific domains.

Currently the most recognizable symbol of Canadian identity on the internet, the .CA domain had a humble beginning. It was conceived by Webnames.ca Co-Founder, John Demco in 1987 (2012 marks 25 years for the .CA domain name); and for 13 years, John and a group of dedicated volunteers managed the .CA out of his office at the University of British Columbia. What started out as a couple of domains have now grown into two million domains and continues to grow daily.

By 2000, an amazing 100,000 .CA domain names had been registered under John’s care. “When we started the .CA domain there were only a few thousand computers on the Internet – in total – and no one thought it would ever be so pervasive,” said John Demco, who had allocated and administered .CA domain names at no charge to users. Now, Canada “leads the world in the amount of time its citizens spend online, and while the Internet from a technology perspective doesn’t concern itself with nationality, Canadians strongly identify with .CA domain names and the registration of two million .CAs is proof of that.”

.CA has now become an important part of the identity and presence of Canadian businesses on the web. “.CA shows website visitors that they are shopping locally, will pay in Canadian funds and receive product shipped from within the country,” says Webnames.ca President and Co-Founder, Cybele Negris. “Two million .CA domains is a huge milestone and all Canadians should feel proud of this achievement. I remember over twelve years ago working with John Demco and our team to transition the .CA domain registry to CIRA. The domain has continued to grow in importance for Canadians and John’s vision to preserve an online identity for all Canadians is being fulfilled. With numerous new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) being launched by ICANN next year and the expansion of domain extensions from 22 gTLDs to hundreds, the role of .CA in representing a Canadian website will be even more crucial.”

The growth of .CA domains has been growing at an astounding pace. In 2008, the dot-CA domain celebrated reaching one million .CA domains registered and in only four years, the two million mark has been reached. “One never knows what might happen, especially in an environment as dynamic as the Internet. However, .CA has been performing well since its inception, and particularly well during the past few years, and we can look forward to continued strong growth” said John Demco. “This is a notable milestone for the .CA domain. It has become part of the fabric of Canadian society. I would like to pay tribute to the volunteers who contributed so much during the early years of the registry, to CIRA for its excellent stewardship since taking over responsibility in 2000, and to all those who are getting involved in the .CA domain and Internet governance in general.”