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Shakeup on the .com leader boards, Namecheap tops 5 million

by — Domain Registrars 3 Comments

Lots of shifting and Namecheap hits a milestone.

Image of man running up column chart with words "Top 10 Registrars"

ICANN has published the latest official data from Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) about the .com namespace. This registrar-by-registrar report covers September 2019.

There was a lot of shakeup this month.

On the new registrations chart, Xin Net fell out of the top ten after its monthly volume reduced from 220k to 51k. Hosting Concepts B.V. d/b/a OpenProvider, an at-cost registrar, surged into the top 10.

On the total .com leaderboard, GMO replaced NameSilo in the #10 spot after giving it up to NameSilo the month before.

Namecheap hit a big milestone, surging past 5 million .com domains under management.

Finally, on the clerical side, I’ve added Crazy Domains to Web.com’s totals starting this month. Web.com acquired CrazyDomains’ parent company Dreamscape last year.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 855,287 (862,732 in August)
2. Chengdu West 222,511
3. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 180,825 (187,769)
4. Namecheap Inc. 163,226 (161,107)
5. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 138,929 (141,014 )
6. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 124,810 (126,603)
7. Alibaba (HiChina) 105,294 (136,895)
8. GMO 95,565 (66,910)
9. Web.com++ 71,894
10. OpenProvider 67,647 (n/a)

Here’s the leaderboard of the top registrars in terms of total .com registrations as of the end of September 2019.

1. GoDaddy* 51,253,800 (51,098,287 in August)
2. Tucows** 13,047,695 (13,123,695)
3. Web.com++ 7,031,650 (6,607,353)
4. Endurance+ 6,873,843 (6,886,901)
5. Alibaba 6,118,945 (6,189,184)
6. United Internet^ 5,549,036 (5,549,520)
7. Namecheap 5,051,943 (4,978,908)
8. Xin Net Technology Corporation 4,518,714 (4,575,392)
9. Google 2,845,811 (2,755,721)
10. GMO 2,183,060 (n/a)

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

* Includes GoDaddy, Wild West Domains 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
^ Includes 1&1, PSI, Cronon, United-Domains, Arsys and world4you

A strong month for .Com

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

A strong month for .com

Image of man running up column chart with words "Top 10 Registrars"

ICANN has published the latest official data from Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) about the .com namespace. This registrar-by-registrar report covers March 2019.

March was a strong month for many registrars. GoDaddy topped 1 million new registrations and others had lots of new registrations, too. United-Domains fell off the monthly performance chart as GMO jumped on.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 1,045,199 (884,685 in February)
2. Xin Net Technology Corporation 294,415 (123,707)
3. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 206,170 (193,620)
4. NameCheap Inc. 160,737 (146,380)
5. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 138,627 (126,422)
6. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 135,927 (112,636)
7. Alibaba (HiChina) 126,659 (76,420)
8. NameSilo (CSE:URL) 95,985 (69,317)
9. GMO 89,155
10. Web.com++ 83,600 (83,164)

Here’s the leaderboard of the top registrars in terms of total .com registrations as of the end of March 2019.

1. GoDaddy* 50,831,723 (50,529,991 in February)
2. Tucows** 12,552,098  (12,554,559)
3. Endurance+ 7,065,847 (7,076,003)
4. Web.com++ 6,717,360
5. Alibaba 6,226,249 (6,193,225)
6. United Internet^ 5,630,889 (5,629,371)
7. Namecheap 4,694,598 (4,627,488)
8. Xin Net Technology Corporation 3,500,398 (3,272,339)
9. Google 2,361,414 (2,266,405)
10. GMO 2,007,437 (1,965,061)

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

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

.Com Winners & Losers

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

The latest data about domain name registrars and .com domain names.

Image of man running up column chart with words "Top 10 Registrars"

ICANN has published the latest official data from Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) about the .com namespace. This registrar-by-registrar report covers February 2019.

Starting this month, I’m including 123 Reg in GoDaddy’s numbers. This pushes its .com total to over 50 million.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* 884,685 (NYSE: GDDY)
2. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 193,620  (214,018 in January)
3. NameCheap Inc. 146380 (160,061)
4. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 126422  (139,405)
5. Xin Net Technology Corporation 123,707 (217,462)
6. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 112,636 (116,104)
7. Web.com++ 83,164 (108,996)
8. Alibaba (HiChina) 76,420 (97,945)
9. United Internet^ (FRA: UTDI) 70,794 (77,587 )
10. NameSilo (CSE:URL) 69,317 (72,182)

Here’s the leaderboard of the top registrars in terms of total .com registrations as of the end of February 2019.

1. GoDaddy* 50,529,991
2. Tucows** 12,554,559 (12,564,886 in January)
3. Endurance+ 7,076,003 (7,091,446)
4. Web.com++  (6,727,908)
5. Alibaba 6,193,225 (6,208,947)
6. United Internet^ 5,629,371 (5,631,764 )
7. Namecheap 4,627,488 (4,592,302)
8. Xin Net Technology Corporation 3,272,339 (3,181,547 )
9. Google 2,266,405 (2,187,443)
10. GMO 1,965,061 (1,959,506 )

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

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

.Com slips at GoDaddy

by — Domain Registrars 8 Comments

Expirations outpaced new registrations at GoDaddy in December.

ICANN has published the latest official data from Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) about the .com namespace. This registrar-by-registrar report covers December 2018.

Something interesting happened in December: GoDaddy’s .com domains under management (DUMs) dropped. I’ve tracked monthly numbers for a long time and don’t recall this happening in recent history.

The drop isn’t due to a large outbound transfer. In fact, GoDaddy’s net transfer loss was less than 10,000. It’s just that more .com names expired at GoDaddy than it got in new registrations.

Note that this only includes GoDaddy and Wild West Domains. It doesn’t include GoDaddy’s smaller registrars and the ones it picked up in the Host Europe Group acquisition.

Now, to the numbers. Here’s how registrars did in terms of new .com registrations.

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 824,821 (865,438 in November)
2. Xin Net Technology Corporation 207,506 (152,143)
3. Alibaba (HiChina) 169,910 (312,227)
4. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 155,809 (175,148)
5. NameCheap Inc. 129,114 (157,607)
6. Web.com++ 101,629 (97,702)
7. NameSilo (CSE:URL) 94,849 (130,713)
8. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 91,577 (123,087)
9. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 85,799 (88,236)
10. United Internet^ (FRA: UTDI) 60,004 (66,501)

Here’s the leaderboard of the top registrars in terms of total .com registrations as of the end of December 2018.

1. GoDaddy* 49,354,689 (49,370,531 in November)
2. Tucows** 12,583,119 (12,659,835)
3. Endurance+ 7,124,825 (7,179,580)
4. Web.com++ 6,726,237 (6,732,478)
5. Alibaba 6,248,273 (6,192,801)
6. United Internet^ 5,640,149 (5,666,856)
7. Namecheap 4,535,855 (4,515,221)
8. Xin Net Technology Corporation 2,987,431 (2,792,514)
9. Google 2,106,955 (2,057,844)
10. GMO 1,953,479 (1,964,580)

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

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

Year in Review: .App domain names

by — Uncategorized 18 Comments

Google’s .App launch brought visibility to new top level domains.

Photo of iPhone screen with apps

It’s been a while since a top level domain name launch caught mainstream attention but Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) launch of .App made waves in 2018.

Perhaps it’s because it is a great string. (Google paid $25 million to acquire rights to the domain.) Perhaps it’s because Google was behind it. Whatever the reason, .app took off.

People registered 7,500 domains during early access. Over 100,000 domains were registered within a day of general availability in May. As of the end of the year, there were over 350,000 registrations.

All of this happened despite two potential roadblocks to registering .app domains. First, there was no heavy discounting. Second, an SSL certificate is required to use a .app domain name.

The SSL is required because .app is on the HSTS preload list. This makes it tricky to park .app domains, but some people came up with solutions to this.

Buying an existing .app domain can be tricky, too. Even before GDPR took effect Google had already obscured Whois records, making it impossible to figure out who owns a .app domain.

Google subsequently launched .page but that domain hasn’t cracked 10,000 registrations.

It will be interesting to see what happens when Google launches .Dev in early 2019.