For the third consecutive year, the EU domain name registry and UNESCO are jointly publishing the World Report, which analyses the uptake of Internationalised Domain Names and identifies gaps that need to be filled in order to facilitate this process. This is not only an academic study, but also a document which draws attention to shortfalls and then calls for appropriate actions. This report builds on the 2012 World Report on IDN Deployment, and the 2011 study “IDNs State of Play”.

The 2013 World Report continues to observe that for Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs), while the potential is great, progress needs to be made on several fronts before we start to see the network effects associated with rapid, widespread adoption. At December 2012, out of the 252 million domain names registered globally, there were 5.1 million IDNs. Although IDN registrations have grown since 2011, they currently only represent 2% of the world’s registered domain names. This low percentage bears no resemblance to the linguistic diversity of the offline world.

The 2013 World Report on IDN Deployment is divided into three sections. The first is a special focus on usability and usage of IDNs. The second is a special focus on IDNs in Asia and the Pacific region. The third reviews IDN news in the past 12 months, including registration numbers, results of a survey of registries and registrars and other developments. Appendices set out a background on IDNs, chart the rate of IDN adoption, provide background data for our usage study and offer nine country case studies.