.au domain space to hit $500,000,000

Ausregistry and auDA have released a report from Deloitte Access Economics, which identifies the economic contribution of the .au domain industry at $475 million, just short of half a billion dollars.

The report is the first of its kind dedicated to assessing the economic impact of the .au domain space. The report examined a number of different issues including the employment created by the .au name space. The report states that total full time equivalent positions of 4,330 exist.

The report also provides useful registrant data, for example 53% of all .au domain names are registered by companies and 14% by sole traders, while 80% of all .au domain names were registered by registrants located in major Australian cities, predominantly on the eastern seaboard.

A copy of the report is available here.