Company reports continued growth in domain name registrations and base.
Verisign reported first quarter earnings after the bell today, including some fairly solid numbers for new registrations and net additions in .com/.net.
8.7 million new .com and .net registrations occurred in the first quarter, up from 8.6 million in the same quarter last year. It’s not a big jump, but it’s headed in the right direction. That netted out to 1.51 million more names after accounting for deletions.
Revenue for the quarter was up 3.9% compared to Q1 2014 to $258 million. Earnings dipped from $94 million to $88 million.
If I were an analyst on today’s conference call, I’d ask what the average revenue per registration for a new .com domain is after taking out direct marketing payments to registrars. I’ve seen lots of promotions on .com lately, including one registrar offering unlimited .com domains for $5 toward the end of last year. It makes sense for Verisign to do this. But for anyone modeling the business, it would be good to understand how much the company is getting for a new .com domain name these days.
Jaymes says
Wish i had known about an unlimited .com promotion. They are the only tld that makes sense to me. Country codes, .net and the new gtlds are all a bloody waste of money.