Do you feel that the spreading COVID-19 affected the registration of .sk domains as well? Your guess is right. We have been analyzing the situation with the registration of domains related to this topic since the beginning of the pandemic. So, let’s have a closer look at its individual waves.
The year 2020 was the year of COVID-19 domains
People in Slovakia reacted to the situation around pandemic quite quickly. As a result, they registered nearly 1300 domains related to this topic in the first half of the year 2020. The domains which focused on information provision were related to words:
- Corona,
- Covid19,
- antibacterial,
- anticovid,
- anticoronavirus,
- how to avoid infection,
- disinfection, etc.
Besides these, shift from the real world to the virtual one was obvious:
- production of face masks,
- face protection,
- respirators,
- corona test,
- covid tests,
- food delivery,
- delivery of goods and purchases,
- assistance to parents, pensioners, neighbours,
- virtual learning, school assignments and tests, etc.
While there was an explosion in numbers of COVID-19 domains in first half of the year 2020, one year later, the interest into these domains dropped. In the first half of the year 2021, we recorded only 251 such registered domains.
The words used for COVID -19 domains has changed accordingly. The words related with more stricter measures, testing and planned vaccination dominated, as e.g.:
- ffp,
- mask,
- vaccination,
- vaccine,
- pcr (tests), etc.
What does this show? That probably everyone knows what corona is, but what measures are in place and what to do in case of infection is not so clear.
Which were the “most successful” months of COVID-19 domains during those periods?
Let’s look at the corona effect in the first and second waves during the first half of 2020 and 2021. We saw the largest increase in 2020 in March, along with “a sharp start” of the entire pandemic. At that time, up to 774 COVID-19 domains were registered (i.e. almost 60% of all COVID-19 domains from the first wave of the pandemic).
In 2021, we recorded the largest increase in January, when 80 domains were registered (i.e. almost 32% of COVID-19 domains from the pandemic second wave).
It is also interesting to note, that while in the first half of 2020 COVID-19 domains accounted for 3.2% of all new .sk domain registrations, in 2021 it was only 0.6%.
How will the situation develop in case of the third wave of the pandemic? Follow the SK-NIC website in the COVID-19 statistics section, where you can also find information about the first two waves.
