Delegated to CNR on December 23rd, New synchronous registration system from September 28 th, 2009

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2 The.it Registry: a short overview Delegated to CNR on December 23rd, 1987 More than 1,860,000 domain names New synchronous registration system from September 28 th, 2009 Coexistence of the two systems until June 2011 About 1,900 Maintainers and 160 Registrars Open to EU juridical and natural persons

3 The.it Registry: organizational structure Management Committee Director IIT/Registry Operations Legal Rules Committee Systems & Development External Relations & Communication International Relations About 70 people including staff-operators, administrative persons and technicians

4 The.it Registry: the Rules Committee Technical advisory body constituted on April 1 st, 2004 Defines the Regulation for the assignment of the.it domain names Formed by: 6 members proposed by the Local Internet Community (LIC) 4 representatives of the Internet Providers 1 ISOC representative 1 users representative 1 member of the GARR Consortium 2 members of the.it Registry 1 representative of the Ministry of Communications Members are renewed every two years

5 Synchronous vs Asynchronous: new registrations New synchronous domains from 2009/09/28 to 2010/02/28: 141,084 New asynchronous domains from 2009/09/28 to 2010/02/28: 50,098 Total of new registrations from 2009/09/28 to 2010/02/28: 191,182

6 The Internet Diffusion Project Launched in 2001 Aims to study the Internet diffusion in Italy using.it domain names Use of domain names as endogenous metric The hostcount metric underestimates the Internet diffusion Esogenous metrics (interviews, questionnaires, number of ADSL contracts, PCs sold, etc.) are less reliable

7 Domain name metric Advantages Identification the Registrant Registrant characteristics Geographical characterization of the Internet diffusion Disadvantages underestimation of the Internet diffusion

8 Main Research topics Analysis of the Italian Internet diffusion and Digital Divide: among different registrants categories at national level, macro-area level (North, Centre and South of Italy), regional, provincial and municipality levels

9 Registrants classification One Registrant per domain has been used to avoid overestimation cases For each Registrant a double characterization has been performed Kind of Italian Registrant Individuals Firms Public bodies Freelancers No-profit Geographical area National level Macro-Area level Regional, provincial and municipality level

10 Registrants Categories in 2009

11 Statistical indicators

12 Firms: the first 10 Regions Regions PR SR % domains Trentino AA % Lombardia % Emilia Romagna % Lazio % Toscana % Veneto % Friuli VG % Umbria % Marche % Sardegna %

13 Individuals: the first 10 Regions Regions PR SR % domains Lazio % Trentino AA % Toscana % Lombardia % Liguria % Valle d'aosta % Emilia Romagna % Umbria % Marche % Friuli VG %

14 No-profit No-profit sector: the greater diffusion of associations on the Net may be due to the fact that in Italy associations are more diffused than other categories (Istat, 2001) Percentage of Domains Registered by No-profit Corporations Table. Percentage of non profit Corporations in Italy Source: ISTAT

15 No-profit: Penetration Rate

16 No-profit: the first 10 Regions Regions PR SR % domains Lazio % Lombardia % Toscana % Campania % Emila R % Veneto % Abruzzo % Liguria % Piemonte % Marche %

17 General: the first 10 provinces Province PR SR % domains Bologna % Milano % Bolzano % Pistoia % Rimini % Roma % Firenze % Pisa % Trento % Siena %

18 Individuals: the first 10 provinces Province PR SR % domains Roma % La Spezia % Rimini % Bolzano % Milano % Firenze % Pisa % Lucca % Siena % Bologna %

19 Individuals: generational and gender digital divide

20 Firms:

21 Firms variation : the first 10 Regions Regions PR 2004 PR 2009 Δ % Sardegna % Emilia R % Basilicata % Lazio % Abruzzo % Campania % Trentino AA % Umbria % Marche % Calabria %

22 Individuals:

23 Individuals variation Regions PR 2004 PR 2009 Δ % Puglia % Molise % Calabria % Liguria % Campania % Sicilia % Basilicata % Marche % Abruzzo % Veneto %

24 No-profit:

25 No-profit variation Regions PR 2001 PR 2009 Δ % Puglia % Abruzzo % Sicilia % Valle d'aosta % Marche % Campania % Calabria % Veneto % Umbria % Liguria %

26 Gender Digital Divide:

27 Generational and Gender Digital Divide:

28 Registrar diffusion Regions Mean % domain Toscana % Sardegna % Abruzzo % Lombardia % Lazio % Trentino AA % Emilia R % Piemonte % Puglia % Molise %

29 In order to identify the degree of concentration of the number of domain names registered by Italian Registrars in the different regions we used two indicators: The HHI (Herfindahl-Hirschman Index) The Gini Index

30 The HHI Index Widely used in literature, measures the degree of competition in the market. HHI is calculated by adding the square of the market shares of each firm. It can be obtained through the following formula: HHI k = S S S S k 2 Where S k is the market share of a firm measured in percentage terms For example, in the case of a market formed by four firms with shares respectively of 30%, 30%, 20%, 20%, HHI is equal to 2,600 ( )

31 The HHI Index (cont) The index is structured in a way that it increases both when the number of firms in the industry decreases and when the gap between firm size widens An index lower than 1,000 indicates a competitive market The markets in which HHI ranges from 1,000 to 1,800 are usually considered moderately concentrated If the index is greater than 1,800, the degree of monopoly power becomes more significant The HHI index at national level is equal to this shows that, at national level, Registrars are similar in size (in terms of registered domain names) it is not possible to talk about monopoly, and moreover the number of firms at national level proves to be high (about 2,000 Registrars)

32 The Gini concentration index Unlike HHI, is a standard index (in statistics a standard index ranges from 0 to 1 and from 1 to 1) The Gini index varies from 0 to 1 1 if there is the maximum concentration Taking into consideration the income distribution in a country, the Gini index is equal to 1 if there is only one individual getting the entire country income 0 if we have a situation of even distribution When all individuals have the same income

33 Lorenz Curve Lorenz Curve The Gini index at national level is high. It is equal to is justified by the fact that only 10 Registrars out of around 2,000 register the 46.30% of the.it domain names

34 Determinants of Digital Divide To identify the key factors contributing to the existence of the digital divide at a provincial level we have used a linear multiple regression model Dependent variable is represented by the log of domain names registered in the 103 Italian provinces by individuals The regressors (independent variables) used in the analysis are demographic, economic and infrastructural variables The regressors have been extracted from various sources (ISTAT - Italian National Statistical Institute -, Infocamere and Tagliacarne Institute) which provide data at a provincial level

35 adjusted R 2 = Determinants of Digital Divide (cont)

36 Determinants of Digital Divide (cont) Significant variables are: Per capita GDP The index of presence of telecommunication networks The number of Registrars The old age index in the previous table is negative and this means that provinces where the index is lower are more inclined to register domain names Not significant variables are: The log of importation The entrepreneurial density Populations density Number of foreigners per inhabitants The jobless rate

37 Conclusions and Future Research

38 Conclusions and Future Research (cont)

39 Conclusions and Future Research (cont) Collaboration with other European Registries interested in the same field of research, to analyse and compare the Internet diffusion in different countries and the eventual key factors leading to such results Is CENTR interested in promoting this project in the CENTR community?

40 Thanks for your attention!