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Latest .com ranking has some surprises

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

Two registrars posted big gains in September.

The words "top 10 domain registrars" in purple and yellow text

ICANN has published the latest official data from Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) about the .com namespace. This registrar-by-registrar report covers September 2020.

There were a couple of surprises in the monthly numbers. Perhaps they are anomalies. First, Hosting Concepts/OpenProvider had a surge in one-year .com registrations, placing it in the top ten. Second, United Internet’s PSI brand posted a surge that doubled the overall company’s .com registrations compared to the prior month.

CentralNic’s brands continue to grow, and I’ll add them as a combined entity starting next month.

Here’s how registrars did in terms of new .com registrations in September:

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 914,038 (970,570 in August)
2. Namecheap Inc. 284,154 (276,557)
3. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 231,791 (245,360)
4. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 178,499 (199,710)
5. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 157,453 (168,619)
6. Alibaba (HiChina) 155,926 (221,686)
7. United Internet^ 142,553 (70,580)
8. Hosting Concepts B.V. d/b/a Openprovider 101,645
9. Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) 97,021 (108,029)
10. NameSilo (CSE:URL) 71,291 (68,308)

Here’s the leaderboard of the top registrars in terms of total .com registrations under management as of the end of September 2020.

1. GoDaddy* 54,450,745 (54,215,433 in August)
2. Tucows** 12,963,637 (12,930,920)
3. Endurance+ 7,232,301 (7,183,871)
4. Web.com++ 7,066,244 (7,041,224)
5. Namecheap 6,516,860 (6,338,718)
6. Alibaba 5,947,947 (5,962,510)
7. United Internet^ 5,639,402 (5,554,345)
8. Google 3,924,273 (3,846,200)
9. Xin Net Technology Corporation 2,244,819 (2,539,828)
10. GMO 2,191,732 (2,212,268)

Many domain companies have multiple accreditations and I’ve tried to capture the largest ones. See the notes below.

* Includes GoDaddy, Wild West Domains, Uniregistry and 123 Reg
** Includes Tucows, Enom, Ascio and EPAG
+ Includes PDR, Domain.com, FastDomain and Bigrock. There are other Endurance registrars, but these are the biggest.
++ Includes Network Solutions, Register.com, and Crazy Domains/Dreamscape
^ Includes 1&1, PSI, Cronon, United-Domains, Arsys and world4you

It’s in: the latest list of which registrars are top in .Com

by — Domain Registrars 2 Comments

The words "top 10 domain registrars" in purple and yellow text

ICANN has published the latest official data from Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) about the .com namespace. This registrar-by-registrar report covers July 2020.

For the second month in a row, Chinese domain name registrar Xin Net has hemorrhaged domains. I suspect some Chinese domain investors are letting their subpar domains go.

Here’s how registrars did in terms of new .com registrations in July:

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 980,072 (1,019,809 in June)
2. Namecheap Inc. 281,870 (276,463)
3. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 248,333 (261,936)
4. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 200,407 (198,274)
5. Alibaba (HiChina) 193,608 (160,422)
6. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 169,345 (159,637)
7. Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) 109,552 (118,685)
8. United Internet^ 71,225 (78,001)
9. Dynadot 61,679
9. NameSilo 57,944 (58,967)

Here’s the leaderboard of the top registrars in terms of total .com registrations under management as of the end of July 2020.

1. GoDaddy* 54,055,970 (53,921,563 in June)
2. Tucows** 12,926,699 (12,911,196)
3. Endurance+ 7,123,142 (7,054,410)
4. Web.com++ 7,035,136 (7,036,119)
5. Namecheap 6,177,045 (6,001,568)
6. Alibaba 5,923,722 (5,877,037)
7. United Internet^ 5,552,903 (5,550,769)
8. Google 3,753,882 (3,653,632)
9. Xin Net Technology Corporation 2,793,597 (3,087,400)
10. GMO 2,249,611 (2,270,872)

Many domain companies have multiple accreditations and I’ve tried to capture the largest ones. See the notes below.

* Includes GoDaddy, Wild West Domains, Uniregistry and 123 Reg
** Includes Tucows, Enom, Ascio and EPAG
+ Includes PDR, Domain.com, FastDomain and Bigrock. There are other Endurance registrars, but these are the biggest.
++ Includes Network Solutions, Register.com, and Crazy Domains/Dreamscape
^ Includes 1&1, PSI, Cronon, United-Domains, Arsys and world4you

Namecheap overtakes Alibaba, Endurance over Web.com

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

Shakeup on the overall leaderboard.

The words "top 10 domain registrars" in purple and yellow text

ICANN has published the latest official data from Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) about the .com namespace. This registrar-by-registrar report covers June 2020.

There are a few key takeaways:

1. As I predicted last month, Namecheap has overtaken Alibaba to become the fifth-largest .com registrar. It now has over 6 million .com domains under management. In June, it topped Tucows for the #2 spot on monthly .com adds. Namecheap was previously a reseller on Tucows’ Enom platform.

2. Web.com is experiencing a serious collapse in new registrations while other registrars are seeing growth. Historically, it was regularly in the top 10 for monthly .com registrations, garnering 60,000+ registrations per month. In June it had only 36,000 new .com registrations, and only 29,000 if you exclude registrations from its Dreamscape acquisition. While it still has a huge base of .com domains, it slipped to #4 on the total .com registration base charts.

3. Wix.com continues its upward climb. The company is getting a boost from people shifting their businesses online during the pandemic and it is increasing ad spend to take advantage of the opportunity. Customers registered another 100k+ .com domains in June, and the company is nearing 1 million .com domains under management.

Here’s how registrars did in terms of new .com registrations in June:

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 1,019,809 (893,819 in May)
2. Namecheap Inc. 276,463  (221,681)
3. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 261,936 (241,523)
4. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 198,274 (185,996)
5. Alibaba (HiChina) 160,422 (129,520)
6. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 159,637 (146,768)
7. Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) 118,685 (104,064)
8. United Internet^ 78,001 (74,587)
9. NameSilo 58,967 (53,893)
10. Bizcn.com 49,431 (n/a)

Here’s the leaderboard of the top registrars in terms of total .com registrations under management as of the end of June 2020.

1. GoDaddy* 53,921,563 (53,787,318 in May)
2. Tucows** 12,911,196 (12,858,166)
3. Endurance+ 7,054,410 (7,011,577)
4. Web.com++ 7,036,119 (7,054,625)
5. Namecheap 6,001,568 (5,843,286)
6. Alibaba 5,877,037 (5,876,504)
7. United Internet^ 5,550,769 (5,543,211)
8. Google 3,653,632 (3,566,580)
9. Xin Net Technology Corporation 3,087,400 (3,391,386)
10. GMO 2,270,872 (2,305,575)

Many domain companies have multiple accreditations and I’ve tried to capture the largest ones. See the notes below.

* Includes GoDaddy, Wild West Domains, Uniregistry and 123 Reg
** Includes Tucows, Enom, Ascio and EPAG
+ Includes PDR, Domain.com, FastDomain and Bigrock. There are other Endurance registrars, but these are the biggest.
++ Includes Network Solutions, Register.com, and Crazy Domains/Dreamscape
^ Includes 1&1, PSI, Cronon, United-Domains, Arsys and world4you

Top domain registrars in China, and how to use them in English (updated)

by — Domain Registrars 4 Comments

Here’s an updated list of registrars in China, and how you can interact with some of them in English.

Magnifying glass over Chinese flag

Based on the “Internet and Domain Industry Report” (Chinese) published in June this year, here’s the updated list of the Top 10 domain registrars in China.

Rank Registrar Chinese Domain English?
1 Alibaba Cloud 阿里云 AlibabaCloud.com Yes
2 Xin Net 新网数码 Xinnet.com –
3 West.cn 西部数码 West.cn Yes
4 eName 易名 eName.com Yes
5 Bizcn.com 商务中国 Bizcn.com –
6 Bang Ning 江苏邦宁 BN.beian.top –
7 DNSPod 帝思普 DNSpod.cn Yes
8 35.com 三五互联 35.com –
9 22net 浙江贰贰 22.cn –
10 CN DNS 美橙互联 CNDNS.com –

Only four registrars provide services also in English: Alibaba Cloud, West.cn, eName, and DNSPod.

Alibaba Cloud offers mainly domain registration (use Alibabacloud.com/domain for English). This registrar also owns the long-established domain registrar HiChina (万网=Wan Wang). While it is a bit confusing, Alibaba Cloud is also known as Aliyun in China.

West.cn is also known as Chengdu West Dimension Digital Technology. Its English site is West.xyz where you can register, bid for, or drop-catch domains. This registrar also offers a buyer agent service to help you acquire a particular domain from a Chinese owner.

eName provides a wide range of services such as auction, backorder, and escrow. Its subsidiary 4.cn also offers similar services in English.

Because HiChina, Xin Net, eName, Bizcn.com, and 22net are Afternic partners, if you list your domains at Afternic, they will be available in China when buyers search for your domains at these registrars. This mechanism allows you to sell to China without having to deal with the language and payment issues.

Is Wechat.com registrar migration a harbinger of things to come in the China domain market?

by — Domain Registrars 4 Comments

Chinese companies might move their domains from the United States.

wechat logo shows two text clouds with eyes

Domaingang.com reported on September 24 that WeChat.com has recently moved from the USA-based registrar MarkMonitor to the China-based eName. This happened amid the worsening relationship between the USA and China.

Naturally, you may wonder whether it is just a single case or other Chinese companies are also following. So, I selected the top 20 companies from the “2019 Top 100 Chinese Internet Companies Report” and checked their Whois records. Here is the result.

Rank Company Domain Registrar Location
1 Alibaba Alibaba.com Alibaba Cloud China
2 Tencent (Teng Xun) Tencent.com MarkMonitor USA
3 Baidu Baidu.com MarkMonitor USA
4 Jing Dong JD.com MarkMonitor USA
5 Ant Financial Antfin.com Alibaba Cloud China
6 Wang Yi (Netease) Netease.com MarkMonitor USA
7 Meituan Meituan.com eName China
8 Toutiao Toutiao.com eName China
9 360 Total Security 360.com eName China
10 Xin Lang (Sina) Sina.com Xin Net China
11 Pinduoduo Pinduoduo.com 22net China
12 Sou Hu (Sohu) Sohu.com MarkMonitor USA
13 58.com 58.com eName China
14 Su Ning Suning.com eName China
15 Xiao Mi Mi.com Network Solutions USA
16 Xie Cheng (Ctrip) Ctrip.com eName China
17 Yong You (Yonyou) Yonyou.com Alibaba Cloud China
18 Cheetah Mobile CheetahMobile.com eName China
19 Autohome Autohome.com Alibaba Cloud China
20 Mango TV MGTV.com Alibaba Cloud China

70% of the domains are located in China and all of them have been there for quite a while. In other words, there is no recent migration of domains from the USA to China. You may notice that Alibaba Cloud and eName are the preferred Chinese registrars. (Note that Alibaba Cloud is known as Aliyun in China, which also owns HiChina.)

Although both Wechat.com and Tencent.com are owned by Tencent, the former has moved but not the latter. It’ll be interesting to see if Tencent.com will eventually move to China.

At this stage, the WeChat.com registrar migration does not signal any change to come. However, if Chinese registrants became worried about any sudden action by the US government, they would certainly move their domains back to China.

Although unlikely, in the extreme case, Chinese companies may be motivated or even ordered to use only .cn domains for operation inside China. If this happened, it would greatly dampen demand for .com domains because currently .com is still the preferred extension in China.

In this age of uncertainty, anything can happen, so it’s important to keep a close watch of the China domain market if you want to sell your domains there.

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