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Revenue and DUMs up over 5% at Verisign

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Verisign turns in another predictable quarter.

Picture of stock chart with the words earnings report

Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) reported earnings after the bell today.

Q3 2021 revenue was up 5.1% year over year to $334 million. Net income came in at $157 million. That’s down from $171 million in the same quarter last year but up $10 million after accounting for an unrecognized tax gain in Q3 2020.

.Com and .net domains under management (DUMs) increased 5.1% year over year to 172.1 million. Customers registered 10.7 million new .com and .net domains during the quarter, down from 10.9 million in the same quarter of 2020. Remember that domain registrations were booming a year ago as companies moved online due to the pandemic. DUMs increased by 1.48 million during the quarter after accounting for deletions.

Verisign raised the price to register and renew .com domains by 7% on September 1. That increase will start to juice margins as the company recognizes revenue from registrations and renewals made after August.

It’s the last day to register/renew .com domains before prices go up

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You’ll pay a bit more tomorrow.

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If you want to save money on .com renewals, today is your last day to act.

Tomorrow, Verisign will increase the wholesale cost of .com domains from $7.85 to $8.39. This is the amount the registry charges registrars, which (usually) tack on margin to cover marketing, payment processing, technology and profits.

So far, low-cost registrars seem to be increasing prices between the 54 cent hike and about a dollar. Some registrars have enough margin baked in that they aren’t immediately increasing prices.

It would be worth registering domains for many years in advance if you plan to keep them. Verisign has the right to increase prices by 7% per year for the next three years, which means the wholesale cost will probably be $10.26 by the end of 2024.

CAICT report on the Chinese domain industry

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This report shows what domains are big in China.

Picture of a report pie chart and the words "domain report"

The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) recently released a research report (Chinese language only) on the Chinese domain industry. I just finished reading it and found some bits and pieces that may help you understand the domain market in China.

Published in July this year, the report is called “Internet Domain Name Industry Report (互联网域名产业报告)”. A large part of the report covers general discussions such as DNS and ICANN, but it also contains some data relevant to domain investment.

There are now 43 million domains registered in China. The largest extension is .cn with 20 million domains (47% of total), followed by .com with 12 million domains (29%). The top 10 are .cn, .com, .中国 (IDN China), .icu, .top, .wang, .net, .xyz, .vip, and .club.

You may think Chinese IDN domains must be very popular in China because of its 1.4 billion Chinese-speaking population. Unfortunately, the answer is no. Domains in Chinese IDN extensions account for only about 6% of all domains registered in China. This is because there are still many issues to be tackled, such as user awareness and support by applications.

How does China compare with other countries? The United States has the largest number of domains registered, followed by China, Germany, Tokelau, and Canada. When we look at domains in country extensions only, if the free .tk (Tokelau) domains are excluded, then .cn is the largest country extension in the world.

Finally, the United States has the largest number of domain registrars in the world, followed by Japan, Germany, UK, France, and then China.

 

These 43 two letter .com domains are used by Chinese companies

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Kassey Lee examined all 676 two letter .com combos to see how many are used by Chinese companies.

Two Ls on a background that is yellow on the top and blue on the bottom

A lot of 2L .com domains have moved to China, but how many of them are actually put to use?

To answer this question, I generated a list of 676 two-letter .com domains. (676 is the maximum number of two-letter domains possible.) I visited each domain and checked its contents. I also checked if the domain is used as an acronym.

In my final list, I have excluded end users obviously located outside China, such as DF.com (Digital Future) and JU.com (聚币) in Singapore. Below is the list.

Domain End user Acronym Application
AK.com AK n Games
BL.com Bai Lian (百联) y Shopping
CH.com Chun Qiu (春秋) n Travel
CY.com Chang You (畅游) y Games
EQ.com Yi Kong (易控) n Autos
EV.com Electric Vehicle (电动汽车观察家) y Autos
GG.com GG Games n Games
GZ.com Ming Yang (名扬由) n Domains
HG.com Wan Jia Huan Gou (万嘉欢购) y Wines
IQ.com Ai Qi Yi (爱奇艺) n Videos
JD.com Jing Dong (京东) y eCommerce
JK.com Jiu Zhou Tong Jian Kang (九州通健康) y Shopping
KE.com Bei Ke (贝壳) n Real estate
KK.com Duo Ku (多酷) n Games
KM.com Qi Mao (七猫) n Videos
LE.com Le Shi (乐视) n TV
LT.com Le Tou (乐投) y Games & lottery
LU.com Lu Jin Suo (陆金所) n Finance
LY.com Tong Cheng (同程) n Travel
MI.com Xiao Mi (小米) n Smartphones
NN.com Qian Kuan (千款) n Games
OD.com OD (OD体育) n Sports betting
PT.com Players Times (玩家时代) y Games?
QQ.com Teng Xun Wang (腾讯网) n News
QX.com Qi Xin (齐心) y Shopping
RO.com Xian Jing Chuan Shuo (仙境传说) n Games
SO.com 360 Sou Suo (360搜索) n Search engine
UB.com UnitedBitcoin(比特联储) y Crypto
VX.com Wei Xiao Wang (微小网) n Design plans
WJ.com Wan Jia (玩家) y Games to launch?
WQ.com Wan Qian (万千) y Shopping
XA.com Ji Fei (极飞) n Drones
XD.com Xin Dong (心动) y Games
XF.com Xian Feng (仙峰) y Games
XQ.com Xin Qi (新奇) y Blog
XT.com XT n Crypto
XZ.com XZ.COM n Domain registrar
YW.com Yun Wei (运维) y Internet services
YY.com Jin Hong (津虹) n Videos
ZG.com ZG.COM n Crypto
ZI.com Zi Li Hang Jian (字里行间) n Chinese fonts
ZJ.com Zhe Jiang(浙江) y Ze Jiang news
ZY.com Zhuo Yue (卓越) y Education

There are 43 domains developed into Chinese websites, which represents only 6% of the 676 domains. Less than half (42%) are acronyms and many of them represent 2-pin names, such as BL.com for Bai Lian (百联), CY.com for Chang You (畅游), and JD.com for Jing Dong (京东).

I highlight 2L and 2-pin here because of their special place in corporate China, as described in “What’s 2-pin and why does it matter for domain investing?“.

GoDaddy increasing DDC .com prices to $8.85 on September 1

by — Domain Registrars 1 Comment

GoDaddy will pass along Verisign’s increase in September.

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Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) is increasing the wholesale price of .com domains by 7% on September 1, and registrars with little margin will be forced to increase their prices as well.

GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) customers who are part of the Domain Discount Club have been paying $8.29 per .com per year, but that’s below Verisign’s new wholesale price of $8.39. So prices will go up at GoDaddy by about 7% on September 1 as well. The new price will be $8.85.

This excludes the 18 cent ICANN fee tacked on to each domain, which brings the total to $9.02.

Customers can avoid the added expense on existing domains by renewing them by the end of August.

Expect other registrars that operate at low margins to announce price increases soon.

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