Statistics: Web Grows, Apache Profits

Apache comprises about 60% of the 4.3 million or so new sites gained since September, corresponding to 2.6 million sites, according to Netcraft. A large part (748 thousand) of these Apache sites is from German hosting company Hetzer Online, which offers dynamic DNS services allowing customers to create hostnames such as yourname.dyns.cx.

The marked growth was nevertheless offset by more than half a million Apache websites lost in the U.S. Netcraft attributes the loss primarily to huge numbers of expired hostnames on The Planet. The self-described "Global IT Hosting Leader" allegedly dropped 1.4 million hostnames in October alone.

Microsoft's webserver lost a fraction of share (-0.37%) in October. However, apart from Apache, Nginx grew a fraction (+0.39%), translating into a gain for the server developed by Russian Igor Sysoev by 1.1 million websites in October to a total of 13.8 million. Netcraft considers China Telecom largely responsible for Nginx's success, especially the over 400 thousand new blogging sites at 163.com.