This Sunday 15 March 2015 will mark 30 years since the first .COM domain name -- Symbolics.com -- was registered, and the Internet and world as we know it changed forever.

VeriSign, Inc., the authoritative registry operator of .COM, is celebrating the 30th anniversary of .COM and the remarkable impact it has had on the economy and culture.

In the last 30 years, the Internet has evolved from an unknown phenomenon used primarily by academics and researchers to a global communication, commerce and information sharing channel that few could imagine life without; in fact, nearly three billion people around the world are online today, and more than $300 billion in U.S. e-commerce sales and over $1.3 trillion in global e-commerce sales rely on the Internet.

Overall four million domain names were added to the Internet in the fourth quarter of 2014, bringing the total number of registered domain names to 288 million worldwide across all top-level domains (TLDs) as of 31st December 2014, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief.

The .com and .net TLDs experienced aggregate growth in the fourth quarter of 2014, reaching a combined total of approximately 130.6 million domain names in the domain name base for .com and .net. This represents a 2.7 percent increase year over year. As of Dec. 31, 2014, the base of registered names in .com equaled 115.6 million names, while .net equaled 15.0 million names.

New .com and .net registrations totaled 8.2 million during the fourth quarter of 2014. In the fourth quarter of 2013, new .com and .net registrations totaled 8.2 million.

As the Internet has evolved and grown, .COM has grown alongside it. Those .COM websites are accessed trillions of times each day. Companies use .COM's global recognition and brand appeal to grow their businesses and reach customers worldwide. Millions of entrepreneurs have realized their dreams by building their businesses online with .COM, and the biggest names in business have branded their business with a .COM address, making .COM synonymous with the Internet.

From Amazon.com, which registered its domain name in 1994, and Google, which registered Google.com as a domain name in 1997, to small and mid-sized businesses more recently registered, such as Enduracenter.com, NaturallyCoolKids.com, or PantryFullofRecipes.com, which was registered in 2015, .COM is the global online standard for doing business. .COM addresses are your best choice for making your online identity recognizable, easily found and trusted on the global Internet.

".COM is more than just an address. It's a globally recognized and respected brand itself that nearly every major global brand, including 100 percent of the Fortune 500, has entrusted with their online presence," said Jim Bidzos, executive chairman, president and chief executive officer at Verisign. ".COM turning 30 represents a shared milestone for us all and a celebration worth commemorating."

While Internet growth and adoption has been primarily concentrated in North America for the last 30 years, today, Internet users in North America account for 19 percent of the total number of Internet users globally. As global Internet adoption and growth is accelerating outside of North America, .COM's global brand appeal, instant recognizability and rapid growth in overseas markets illustrates .COM's growth in parallel with Internet adoption.