.US Domain Is Back On Track...

...But Still Below It's Past Result.

October has become relatively a good month for .US domain operated by NeuStar. American ccTLD ended October with 1,610,492 names in the zone, 17,283 above September's results.

In the industry where almost every TLD is steady growing from month to month, .US lost -29,659 domain names in September and -2,902 names in August according to HosterStats.com

There are many different factors influencing Top Level Domain growth. I can bet that .US lost so many customers because of 2010-sales showing almost no value of the "2nd class" domains like .BIZ .INFO .MOBI .ASIA .TEL on the Secondary Market.
Domainers' investments in .BIZ or .MOBI become void, .COM and leading ccTLDs (.DE .UK .NL .BE .EU...) are the Kings and Queens of Internet.

For Americans (as well as for most of the businesses around the world), .COM is the primary choice for business and American citizens. US ccTLD has been always treated just as an investment similar to investments in .CO or .ME. This is the reason why NeuStar's baby joined the general trend for "2nd-Class" gTLDs and "investments" ccTLDs.

.US result is still above many ccTLDs from around the world, but it can never become a real ccTLD for Americans. There is no alternative to .COM in US for doing business on-line.