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Monocentric Cyberspace: The Primary Market for Internet Domain Names


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Abstract

Cyberspace is no different from traditional cities, at least in economic terms. Urban economics governs the creation of new space on the Internet and explains location choices and price gradients in virtual space. This study explores registration dynamics in the largest primary market for virtual space: Internet domain names. After developing a framework for domain registrations, it empirically tests whether domain registrations are constrained by the depletion of unregistered high quality domain names. Estimations based on registrations of COM domain names suggest that the number of domains expands substantially slower than the growth in overall demand for domain space. Supplying alternative domain extensions can relax the shortage in domains in the short term.

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Keywords

virtual land-rush markets, primary market for cyberspace, registrations of internet domain names, supply constraints

Journal Title

Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0895-5638
1573-045X

Volume Title

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
My postdoctoral research project received substantial financial contributions by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).