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Two registrars hit major DUMs milestones

by — Domain Registrars 1 Comment

Dynadot and NameSilo celebrate milestones.

Picture of red, blue and yellow fireworks with the word "milestone" in white letters on a red background.

Two domain name registrars hit major milestones for domains under management (DUMs) this month.

Dynadot announced last week that customers now have over 3 million domains registered at the registrar. The company hit the two million milestone in September 2019 and the one million number about a year before that, so the company is growing very quickly.

NameSilo (CSE:URL) also hit a milestone recently, announcing yesterday that it now has over four million domains under management. This comes less than two years after it hit three million domains.

Domains under management is a somewhat controversial metric for domain registrars and registries because some chase quantity over quality. NameSilo is unique in that it keeps a running tally of its domains on a dashboard, including a breakdown by top level domain. The dashboard shows that over half of the company’s domains are .com, which is a good sign (compared to being mostly inexpensive top level domains bought in bulk).

NameSilo reports 2020 results

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

Revenue grew by over 14% in 2020.

Picture of stock chart with the words earnings report

NameSilo Technologies Corp. (CSE:URL), the parent company of domain name registrar NameSilo, reported its earnings for 2020 this week.

The company grossed $31.1 million for the year, up from $27.2 million in 2019. The company credits an increase in domains under management and new ancillary services for the growth. NameSilo now has over 3.9 million domains under management and over half of those are .com domains.

NameSilo says that over 65% of the revenue was generated by customers who were customers in the prior fiscal year.

The company swung from a $4.0 million loss to a $6.5 million profit from 2019 to 2020, but that change has little to do with the core registrar business; the holding company’s investments in other companies increased in value by over $9 million.

NameSilo announced last year that it was in negotiations to be acquired, and says those discussions are still ongoing.

NameSilo update: record revenue, acquisition still in the works

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

Company tops $3 million revenue in March.

Namesilo domain registrar logo

Domain name registration company NameSilo (CSE:URL) issued an update on its operations today.

In the release, the company said that monthly revenue exceeded USD $3 million in March for the first time ever. It also paid down nearly $1 million (Canadian) of debt, bringing its outstanding debt to under CAN $5 million.

The company now has 3.82 million domain names under management.

In December, the company announced that it entered into a non-binding letter of intent to sell its assets to WGH Holdings BV for USD $30 million. The idea is to combined NameSilo into a domain registration business in Africa. The release states, “Both parties continue to work towards meeting the conditions to enter into a definitive agreement. More details will be announced when available.”

NameSilo finds buyer as debt payments loom

by — Domain Registrars 9 Comments

Company enters into non-binding letter of intent to be sold to Dutch operating company building a large presence in Africa.

Namesilo domain registrar logo

Domain name registrar NameSilo  (CSE:URL) has entered into an agreement to be sold to a Dutch company that has grand plans in Africa.

WGH Holdings B.V. has entered into a non-binding letter of intent to acquire the company. It will pay a total of US $30 million for the company, with $15 million upfront and $5 million annually for three years. It has a 60-day due diligence period.

The buyer WGH Holdings B.V. was organized in the Netherlands in November. According to filings with the country’s Chamber of Commerce, it is owned by Roland Vos Beheer BV, which has a sole shareholder, Roland Vos.

NameSilo CEO Kristaps Ronka told Domain Name Wire that this ownership structure is not final and that WGH Holdings was set up to put NameSilo together with the actual business, which is a growing domain name and hosting business in Africa called WhoGoHost. Nigerian entrepreneur Ayodeji Adewunmi operates WGH. Update: WhoGoHost contacted me in April 2021 to say that, while it was in discussions with WGH about an acquisition, the acquisition did not conclude and that WGH Holdings does not own WhoGoHost.

While NameSilo has grown significantly since being acquired by current management in 2018, it has also struggled to make large debt payments. Its parent company NameSilo Technologies Corp  includes going concern warnings in its financial statements. It has frequently entered into amended agreements with its creditors to delay payments. As of September, it still owed CAD $7.6 million.

Ronka told Domain Name Wire that the deal was not due to the debt load and that it is selling at 1.2x revenue to a strategic partner. He noted that NameSilo’s current management is staying on with the new company.

NameSilo has over 3.5 million domains under management.

This article has been updated with additional information from NameSilo. It was also updated on April 30, 2021 when WhoGoHost informed Domain Name Wire that it was not acquired and is not owned by WGH.

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

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