Author: Neil Dundas (10 May 2026)
Recent reporting around ZADNA’s revised long-term forecasting targets has understandably sparked discussion about the future growth trajectory of South Africa’s CO.ZA namespace.
As the registry operator for the commercial CO.ZA second-level domain (including others such as ORG.ZA, NET.ZA and WEB.ZA), we believe it is useful to add some additional operational context and industry perspective to the conversation.
The “revised forecasts” published by ZADNA should not necessarily be interpreted as a sign of declining relevance or weakening demand for CO.ZA domain names. Rather, they appear to reflect a broader global trend: many established country-code namespaces are transitioning from rapid expansion into a more mature and sustainability-focused phase.
Mature Internet Namespaces Behave Differently
Globally, many of the world’s largest and most established ccTLDs have experienced a natural moderation in net growth over recent years. This includes mature European namespaces where registry operators increasingly focus not only on raw registration volumes, but also on metrics such as renewal stability, trust, retention, utilisation, abuse mitigation, and long-term ecosystem resilience.
As namespaces mature and their installed domain base grows, delete and expiry activity naturally increases alongside renewals. This causes net growth figures to moderate over time, even while the underlying demand for new registrations (creates) may remain healthy.
In this context, net growth alone does not always provide a complete picture of domain name health.
Strong Create Activity Remains One of the Most Important Indicators
One of the most important indicators of sentiment within any domain ecosystem is ongoing new registration (“create”) activity.
New domain registrations reflect active decisions by businesses, entrepreneurs, SMEs, developers, projects, and brands to establish a digital presence within the namespace. New registration activity is often one of the clearest indicators of market confidence, reflecting ongoing investment, adoption, and digital participation.
In Q1-2026 alone, CO.ZA recorded 86,536 new domain registrations, which equate to approximately 29,000 new registrations per month and represent a substantial level of ongoing digital onboarding into the South African digital ecosystem.
Importantly, the new registration (create) activity accelerated materially year-on-year:
- Q1-2025 creates: 71,130
- Q1-2026 creates: 86,536
- Year-on-year increase: +21.7%
This increase was accompanied by a reduction in delete activity and continued strong renewal performance, resulting in CO.ZA reaching a new all-time high of 1,412,544 domains at the end of March 2026.
Renewal and Retention Performance Remain Strong
Another key international benchmark is renewal performance.
CO.ZA continues to maintain renewal ratios in excess of 80%, which compares favourably with many mature ccTLDs and legacy gTLDs globally. Strong renewal behaviour is a key indicator of sustained trust, long-term value perception, and namespace stability.
These metrics suggest that registrants are not simply registering domains speculatively, but rather that they are continuing to retain and renew them over time.
This reflects a domain ecosystem that is stable, trusted, commercially relevant, and deeply integrated into South Africa’s digital economy.
International Branding vs Local Digital Identity
It is also important to distinguish between isolated corporate branding decisions and broader trends in domain adoption.
Some South African companies may elect to migrate their primary digital identity to .COM domains as part of international expansion strategies. This is not unique to South Africa and mirrors behaviour seen globally among multinational enterprises seeking globally uniform brand positioning.
However, the inverse is equally true.
Many international brands and digital platforms actively adopt local ccTLDs when entering regional markets because local domains often provide stronger geographic relevance, consumer trust, localisation, and market association.
A prominent recent example is Amazon, which launched its South African marketplace using the domain Amazon.co.za despite the company’s globally recognised Amazon.com brand. Similar localisation strategies are commonly adopted by major international retailers, technology platforms, and e-commerce operators operating within South Africa and other mature digital economies.
This reflects a broader international reality: global and local domain strategies are often complementary rather than mutually exclusive.
In practice, organisations frequently maintain both global (.COM) and local ccTLD identities simultaneously, using each strategically for different audiences and markets. Even where multinational or South African companies choose to adopt alternative global or regional identities, such as .COM or .AFRICA as part of broader international positioning strategies, it is highly unlikely that existing locally recognised CO.ZA identities will disappear entirely from operational, defensive, marketing, or customer-facing use within the South African market. In practice, organisations increasingly use multiple namespaces strategically for different audiences, markets, and geographic contexts
From an operational perspective, the data continues to demonstrate substantial, ongoing participation in the CO.ZA ecosystem at scale. The continued strength of new registration (create) activity suggests that businesses, entrepreneurs, SMEs, startups, and international operators alike continue to see strong value in establishing and maintaining a South African digital identity within the CO.ZA namespace.
A Healthy, Mature, and Evolving Namespace
The broader picture that emerges from the data is not one of decline, but rather one of evolution and maturity.
The CO.ZA namespace today reflects many of the characteristics associated with successful mature ccTLD ecosystems internationally:
- Stable and high renewal ratios
- Strong ongoing new registration (create) activity
- Sustained registrant engagement
- Increasing registrar competition
- Continued net positive growth
- Strong local trust and recognition
As South Africa’s digital economy continues to evolve, the role of CO.ZA remains highly relevant, not only as a technical namespace but as a trusted national digital identity supporting businesses, communities, institutions, and entrepreneurs across the country.
Ultimately, domain names remain a foundational part of how businesses, organisations, and individuals establish trust and visibility online.
For those interested in more detailed statistics and quarterly reporting on the .ZA commercial domains, additional information is available at:
