Research conducted by Nielsen for ICANN earlier this year found that 66% of consumers had _never_ tried to identify the creator of a website before. Of those who had, even once, tried to identify the creator of a website, only 5% claimed to have performed a WHOIS search even once. Source: http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/reviews/cct/phase2-data-tables-region-08jun16-e...
So, 5% of 34% i.e 1.7%, so 98.3% of "consumers" have never looked at whois
It may be odd to say that “general awareness of the WHOIS service is low” if the absolute number is in the millions.
Millions out of 10s of Billions is so statisticaclly low as to be for all intents and purposes practically zero
BTW, Aiden, 5% is the lowest number to cite. The research study says it was 5% in 2016, but 8% in 2015.
8% of 34% is still under 3% of the total ! Rob