Super Bowl ads propel new domain registrations.
Verisign (NASDAQ:VRSN) released earnings and business results for Q1 2017 yesterday after the closing bell.
9.5 million new .com and .net registrations occurred in the quarter, beating expectations.
While down from the 10.0 gross registrations in the same quarter of 2016, that quarter was during the Chinese investment surge. In Q1 2015 only 8.7 million new .com and .net names were registered, which is more in line with the norm.
Verisign thinks that Super Bowl commercials for websites and domain names led to the increased registrations.
The higher-than-expected new registrations helped increase the overall base of .com/.net domains by 1.4 million. Verisign had forecast an increase of only 0.7 million to 1.2 million.
The company expects the base to increase by 0.0 million to 0.4 million in Q2 2017.
Jesus Mireles says
“Verisign (NASDAQ:VRSN) released earnings and business results for Q1 2016 yesterday after the closing bell” or 2017?
Andrew Allemann says
Oops — thanks!
Drewbert says
No mention of their IDN NGTLD failure-to-launch?
Joseph Peterson says
It’s striking how little fluctuation there is with mass behavior on this scale.
8.7 in 2015. 9.5 million in 2017. And even with the perturbation of China, 2016 just 10.0 million.
Over 2 years, that’s 4.5% annual growth. If the trajectory would otherwise have been linear, then 2016 would have been 9.1 million, China having given a 10% lift.
Andrew Allemann says
They’re looking at about 1% growth for the year