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Namecheap hits 10 million domains under management, Q&A with CEO Richard Kirkendall

by — Domain Registrars 5 Comments

Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall answers questions about Namecheap as it hits a big milestone.

Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall

Domain name registrar Namecheap announced that it has eclipsed the 10 million domains under management milestone. This comes after being named to the Inc 5000 with $109.1 million in revenue last year. I reached out to Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall to ask questions about the growth, the company’s history as a reseller and what it has planned for the future.

DNW: For a long time, you were a reseller, so it wasn’t clear just how big Namecheap was. Why did you decide to move your domains under your own registrar creds?

Kirkendall: I’ll start by saying that we’ve had our own registrar backend and our own accreditation for many years now. The sole reason we had continued to work with Enom was because of the partnership we formed with them over the years, and the extremely favorable terms they gave to us to stick around.

That being said, we were under contract with them, and once that contract ran out, we decided it was time to finally branch out on our own. Being on our own allows us to use our scale and leverage our size to work out better deals, and also to form partnerships that directly affect the value we are able to deliver to our customers.

Cutting out the middleman has also allowed us to build better technology, as well as directly affect how quickly and efficiently we serve our customers. It’s been a long time coming and we are excited by the road ahead.

What role have new TLDs played in reaching 10 million domains?

Kirkendall: The new TLDs play a role, but I wouldn’t say they are the only driver to our growth. As you’ve pointed out in some of your blog posts recently, we are one of the largest registrars when it comes to legacy TLDs such as .com and .net as well. Our growth is mainly being driven by our ever-expanding customer base, and that’s what is key here.

We have millions of customers on our platform, and that number continues to expand quickly. I would say, in terms of customers for a single domain registrar, we are the second largest retail registrar in the world. Our strategy from the get-go has always been to focus on many customers with a few domains, rather than a few customers with many domains. It is this same strategy that has allowed us to quickly scale across all TLDs – as we have a wide range of customers with different needs.

(Editor’s note: Namecheap is the 5th largest registrar for .com domains and the 2nd largest for new TLDs.) Click here to continue reading…

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Domain name registrars and .Com, by the numbers

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

ICANN publishes latest .com data.

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

There was little change on the charts. For new registrations, NameSilo lept above West.cn for the month. On the top 10 total registrations leaderboard, Xin Net swapped places with GMO.

In May, these were the top 10 registrars in terms of new .com registrations.

1. GoDaddy.com* 951,994 (960,904 in April)
2. HiChina Zhicheng Technology Ltd. 210,854 (246,804)
3. Tucows** 207,430 (203,219)
4. Endurance+ 136,328 (153,352)
5. NameCheap Inc. 125,428 (127,855)
6. Xin Net Technology Corporation 125,152 (113,107)
7. Web.com++ 109,876 (103,385)
8. Google Inc. 98,618 (92,671)
9. NameSilo 67,446 (62,017)
10. West.cn 61,649 (74,741)

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

1. GoDaddy* 48,305,409 (48,088,605 in April)
2. Tucows** 12,875,098 (12,932,547)
3. Endurance+ 7,592,640 (7,725,154)
4. Web.com++ 6,709,055 (6,713,143)
5. HiChina 5,426,366 (5,298,573)
6. NameCheap 4,243,582 (4,222,952)
7. 1&1 3,744,506 (3,760,259)
8. Xin Net Technology Corporation 2,076,944 (2,010,000)
9. GMO 2,064,482 (2,089,800)
10. Google 1,728,215 (1,663,836)

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

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Namecheap hits $109.1 million revenue in 2017

by — Domain Registrars 1 Comment

One of the largest domain name registrars crossed the 9 figure mark in 2017.

Domain name registrar Namecheap has been a big domain name registrar for a long time but didn’t always show up on top registrar lists because it was an Enom reseller.

Now that it has pulled most of its domains onto its own registrar accreditation, the company’s size has become apparent. It’s among the top five largest domain name registrars for .com domain names.

In 2015, Namecheap had revenue of $76 million and three-year growth of 117%. It fell off the Inc 5000 in 2017, but is back for the 2018 list. Its 2017 revenue was $109.1 million. That’s up 78% over three years, and up 44% from 2015.

According to the company’s Inc 5000 listing, it employees 950 people.

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June’s top DNW stories

by — Uncategorized 0 Comments

Here’s a rundown of the top stories and podcasts on DNW from last month:

1. Timing is everything: why .XXX dwarfs other adult top level domain names – The .XXX namespace and others recently sold by ICM Registry paint a picture of how difficult it is to market a new TLD in a crowded environment.

2. Yes, your domain name registrar has made it impossible for people to contact you – The general internet public is just learning about the Whois ramifications of GDPR.

3. Man gets 20 years in prison for trying to steal a domain name – A man is headed to prison after an unusual physical attempt to steal a domain name.

4. Web.com to go private in $2 billion acquisition – The final price could be higher if competing offers come in.

5. Namecheap starts sending expired domains to GoDaddy Auctions – Namecheap is the latest domain name registrar to sign up to sell expired domains through GoDaddy.

Podcasts

All About .Me – I chat with .Me registry CMO Natasa Djukanovic about how the .Me domain name came to be.

Three companies using new TLDs – Three individuals who registered new TLDs for their businesses explain why.

The Amazon FBA business model – Learn about FBA, a unique ecommerce opportunity.

John Pollard: How to grow the usage of domain names – Donuts’ EVP of Registry explains how he believes domain names can find new uses.

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Namecheap starts sending expired domains to GoDaddy Auctions

by — Expired Domains 4 Comments

GoDaddy Auctions increases its expired domain footprint.

Namecheap is the latest domain name registrar to send its expired domain name inventory to GoDaddy Auctions.

A Domain Name Wire reader noticed a domain in the GoDaddy Auctions expiry stream today that is for a domain registered at Namecheap. I subsequently ran searches uncovering many more.

Namecheap joins Tucows and Endurance International Group, which have been sending their domains to GoDaddy for a while. This means that GoDaddy Auctions has the expired domain inventory from the #1, #2, #3, and #6 largest domain registration companies (based on their .com registration base).

I predicted that Namecheap would end up in GoDaddy’s stable. Namecheap just had a nasty divorce with Tucows, which operates the competing website NameJet where Namecheap names were previously auctioned off.

(Yes, Tucows sends its expired domain inventory to GoDaddy despite owning 50% of a competing expired domain service. That speaks volumes.)

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