DHAKA: Can you believe it has been three decades since the birth of the first web address? While it seems difficult to remember a time when .COM didn’t exist, the exponential growth of the industry has been relatively recent.

In 1985, only six domains were registered. That number grew to 223 in 1990 and 9,005 in 1995, but exploded to over 20 million in 2000. In early 2015, more than 116 million domains were registered.

On March 15, 1985, the first .COM was registered to symbolics.com. Readily available information at our fingertips has dramatically impacted daily life. Today, nearly three billion users access .COM domains each day.

Explore the ways .COM milestones have shaped our lives over its 30-year existence with this share-worthy below infographic from Verisign, a global leader in domain name creations and Internet security.



From personal websites and dating sites to online shopping, social media, and news sites, the .COM invention sparked a variety of other domains, such as .EDU, .GOV, .NET and .ORG.

With more than 3 trillion users accessing sites each day, the .COM domain created a platform for some of the world’s most influential people and companies to showcase and promote their brands. Take a look at these stats of .COM users.

—8 of the top 10 Forbes’ World’s Most Powerful Celebrities maintain a personal .COM presence (FYI – it’s Ellen and Robert Downey Jr., who do not have personal sites).

—The top 10 most followed twitter handles (mostly celebs, but also @youtube and @theellenshow) are connected to a .COM presence.

—The top 15 entertainment and gossip websites all live on .COM domains.

—All top social media websites live on .COM domains.

—All top 10 athletes on Forbes’ 2014 Most Powerful Athletes list have a .COM presence.

—Today, there are more 115 million .COM domain names registered.

—100% of Fortune 500 companies and the world’s fastest-growing companies own their trademark .COM

Source: Parade, Photos: Verisign

BDST: 1230 HRS, MAR 15, 2015