In this paper we consider the problem of computing the $2$-vertex-connected components ($2$-vccs) of directed graphs. We present two new algorithms for solving this problem. The first algorithm runs in $O(mn^{2})$ time, the second in $O(nm)$ time. Furthermore, we show that the old algorithm of Erusalimskii and Svetlov runs in $O(nm^{2})$ time. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between $2$-vccs and dominator trees. We also present an algorithm for computing the $3$-vertex-connected components ($3$-vccs) of a directed graph in $O(n^{3}m)$ time, and we show that the $k$-vertex-connected components ($k$-vccs) of a directed graph can be computed in $O(mn^{2k-3})$ time. Finally, we consider three applications of our new algorithms, which are approximation algorithms for problems that are generalization of the problem of approximating the smallest $2$-vertex-connected spanning subgraph of $2$-vertex-connected directed graph.