South Africa's Internet namespace has surpassed 1.2 million name registrations across all the Second Level Domains (SLDs) registered and administered by the ZA Central Registry NPC (ZACR), namely co.za, web.za, net.za and org.za.

According to a statement issued by ZACR, the organisation has registered three SA cities' Geographic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) including: .joburg ('dotJoburg'), .capetown ('dotCapeTown') and .durban ('dotDurban'), as well as .africa ('dotAfrica') gTLD.

The regulator said South Africa is leading the domain name market in Africa with 57 million people and over 1.2 million registrations of domain names.

"By way of comparison, Nigeria, a country of 190 million people, has notched up 102 000 registrations within its .ng country code domain name," the ZACR stated.

ZACR CEO Lucky Masilela attributes the success of co.za to the globally proven 'Triple R' model adopted in 2010.

The Triple R Model is based on the separation of functions and responsibilities by the Regulator, the Registry Operator and the Registrar, the organisation explained.

"Our current model is the reason South Africa boasts the highest number of Africa's domain name registrations coupled with our intention to keep the domain costs as low as possible on the continent," said Masilela.

ZACR was recently awarded the rights to administer the entire African continent's presence on the World Wide Web in the form of the .africa (dotAfrica) gTLD.

"South Africa's SLDs, with their impressive 1.2 million total registrations, have cemented .ZA's standing as one of the world's most popular namespaces and successfully capped ZACR's third decade serving the South African and global Internet consumer," Masilela added.

The co.za SLD alone currently has over 1 117 000 registrations.

In February 2018 the AU announced the completion of an organised dotAfrica roadshow, launched at the 29th African Union Summit held in Addis Ababa in early July 2017.

Masilela said at the time, "The .africa gTLD is not just a domain, but a rallying point around which a much greater, united, African economy can be built. It is fitting and proper that Dotafrica is so enthusiastically supported by the African Union and its member states."

"The availability of a new space within which to register creative combinations of brand names, payoff lines and more is the spark that will ignite new online and offline business opportunities."