Voice assistants go out and collect data and report it to you. And the data that they collect is found by searching the Internet for the relevant data that they seek. And that’s navigated using the DNS. So they’re completely complementary.
Operator: And we’ll take our last question from Ygal Arounian with Citi.
Ygal Arounian: Maybe just starting on China. You just mentioned it before a little bit. But given the reopening there and some of the factors, think about some of the puts and takes that are kind of driving — moving the needle there or impacting your expectations for next year?
Jim Bidzos : Well, I guess just — well, first of all, just understanding. Oh, I’m getting an echo there. Do you hear that?
David Atchley : I do. Yes.
Jim Bidzos : I don’t know if the audience is hearing my echo. I’m hearing it. Seems to be gone now.
Operator: Okay. Yes. Please proceed. I just muted the participant’s line while you’re responding. That’s all.
Jim Bidzos : Okay. All right. Maybe there was some feedback there. So in 2022, we did see a lot of China names that were registered in 2021, renewing with lower first-time renewal rates. That was a factor in 2022. And also, China, as you know, has treated the pandemic differently. It’s somewhat unique in that sense. And those are the factors that contributed to lockdowns, which are ongoing. There’s zero COVID policy increased regulation, economic uncertainty, the proportion of names renewing from China that’s higher. We mentioned last year that we did see some signs of returning. I think my comments about the — what — if there’s any consensus about 2023, I think it’s that uncertainty still exists and that the recovery is maybe a little bit slower than people thought.
So we’re sort of just factoring that in. China is certainly part of it. But things are changing in China. I think it’s too early to say exactly what that impact will be. But certainly, the economy seems to be moving in a different direction there with some of the COVID restrictions lifting. Maybe after a quarter next quarter, we’ll be able to tell you more about what that’s doing to the 2023 outlook. And obviously, we’ll update our guidance if we see something meaningful that we consider worthy of reporting and representing a trend. At this point, I think it’s just too early to say.
Ygal Arounian: Okay. Hopefully, not on mute any part, but one more — can you guys hear me?
David Atchley : Yes, we’re hearing you.
Jim Bidzos: You’re not on mute. Go ahead.
Ygal Arounian: Okay. So one — a couple of questions we get on domains. One is, I know the environment was different in the early part of the pandemic. But I get the question on counter cyclicality. We’re seeing a lot of layoffs in the tech world right now. And often that can lead to kind of new business formation, people starting projects. Are there any indications of that are you seeing that? Is that factored into your guidance at all? And then the other thing people kind of ask us about regularly is how we think about normalized domain growth going forward, right? We’ve got some macro headwinds here, but prior to the pandemic, domains were growing at about 4%, plus 5% or let’s just call it 4%, growing about 4%. We’ve been well below that now for duration this year. Our guidance is well below that for next year. How do you guys think about a normalized growth rate for domain? Return back to the levels of pre-COVID? Or are there other factors to think about?
