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Newfold surges in latest .com report

by — Domain Registrars 1 Comment

These are the fastest growing and largest domain name registrars for .com domains.

Picture of a column chart and a magnifying glass with the words ".com leaderboard"

ICANN has published the latest official data from Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) about the .com namespace. This registrar-by-registrar report covers March 2021.

Newfold turned in strong new registrations numbers for March thanks to an outsized contribution from PDR. NameSilo also shot up with the #8 performance of the month for new .com registrations.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 989,943 (925,152 in February)
2. Newfold Digital+ 350,358 (206,774)
3. Namecheap Inc. 304,558 (264,318)
4. Alibaba (HiChina) 239,989 (121,647)
5. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 191,583 (181,553)
6. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 179,623 (158,100)
7. IONOS^ 130,470 (128,099)
8. NameSilo 115,765
9. Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) 110,517 (101,812)
10. Dynadot 97,678 (96,021)

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

1. GoDaddy* 56,052,675 (55,682,410 in February)
2. Newfold Digital+  14,611,936 (14,503,701)
3. Tucows** 12,966,909 (12,966,924)
4. Namecheap 7,510,860 (7,322,036)
5. Alibaba  6,159,477 (6,089,089)
6. IONOS^  5,876,741 ( 5,826,355)
7. TurnCommerce++ 4,729,908 (4,704,384)
8. Google 4,378,455 (4,274,969)
9. CentralNic^^ 3,124,645 (3,079,555)
10. GMO 2,130,658 (2,087,633)

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, Bigrock, Network Solutions, Register.com, SnapNames registrars, and Crazy Domains/Dreamscape. There are other Newfold registrars, but these are the biggest.
++ Includes NameBright and DropCatch registrars
^ Includes 1&1, PSI, Cronon, United-Domains, Arsys and world4you
^^ Includes Key-Systems, 1API, Internet.bs, TLD Registrar Solutions, RegistryGate, Moniker, Instra

Domain stocks trail market in 2021

by — Uncategorized 0 Comments

MMX is one bright spot in the industry.

Picture of stock chart with the words "domain stocks"

Major domain name stocks are treading water this year despite the up markets.

I analyzed prices from the December 31 close last year to the market close yesterday, June 9. During that period, the Dow is up 13%, the S&P is up 12% and the NASDAQ is up 8%.

MMX is up due to the GoDaddy acquisition, but other stocks are either neutral or down. Here’s a look, ranked by gains for the year.

MMX (London AIM: MMX): Minds + Machines (MMX) is the one bright spot this year after GoDaddy announced it’s acquiring substantially all of its assets. Shares are up 46%.

Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX): Shares in the company that owns Enom have increased 5% so far this year. Its yearly financial comparisons are hard to read because the company sold its mobile business last year on an earn-out deal.

Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN): Verisign is trading neutral for the year, up 1%. It surprised the market with improved guidance after Q1. Analysts and stockholders should have already priced in the 7% price increase for .com that goes into effect on September 1.

GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY): GoDaddy is treading water this year, down 2%.

Clarivate (NYSE: CCC): Clarivate is kind of, sort of a domain company. It owns MarkMonitor. It was a SPAC before SPACs were cool. Shares are down 11% so far this year.

CentralNic (London AIM: CNIC): CentralNic’s shares are down 12% so far this year. The company reports strong growth as the mix of the company has changed with a focus on online advertising businesses.

NameSilo (OTC: URLOF): NameSilo is down 22% this year. The company announced last year that it signed a non-binding letter of intent to be acquired, but that has not progressed to a definitive agreement as of April 5 this year.

I do not own individual shares in publicly-traded domain name companies to avoid a conflict of interest. Mutual funds I own, including index funds, do hold some of these stocks.

GoDaddy and Namecheap add most .com domains

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

These are the fastest growing and largest domain name registrars for .com domains.

Picture of a column chart and a magnifying glass with the words ".com leaderboard"

ICANN has published the latest official data from Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) about the .com namespace. This registrar-by-registrar report covers February 2021.

There was little movement in terms of rankings this month.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 925,152 (978,334 in January)
2. Namecheap Inc. 264,318 (291,257)
3. Newfold Digital+ 206,774 (212,014)
4. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 181,553 (205,679)
5. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 158,100 (169,363)
6. Alibaba (HiChina) 121,647 (154,990)
7. IONOS^ 128,099 (79,960)
8. CentralNic^^ (AIM: CNIC) 116,995 (73,360)
9. Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) 101,812 (113,294)
10. Dynadot 96,021 (98,314)

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

1. GoDaddy*  55,682,410 (55,445,265 in January)
2. Newfold Digital+ 14,503,701 (14,525,308)
3. Tucows** 12,966,924 (12,977,992)
4. Namecheap 7,322,036 (7,175,485)
5. Alibaba  6,089,089 (6,122,968)
6. IONOS^ 5,826,355 (5,773,208)
7. TurnCommerce++ 4,704,384 (4,647,632)
8. Google 4,274,969 (4,193,876)
9. CentralNic^^ 3,079,555 (3,000,932)
10. GMO  2,087,633 (2,089,337)

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, Bigrock, Network Solutions, Register.com, SnapNames registrars, and Crazy Domains/Dreamscape. There are other Newfold registrars, but these are the biggest.
++ Includes NameBright and DropCatch registrars
^ Includes 1&1, PSI, Cronon, United-Domains, Arsys and world4you
^^ Includes Key-Systems, 1API, Internet.bs, TLD Registrar Solutions, RegistryGate, Moniker, Instra

Tucows reports earnings and domain business growth

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

Revenue nudges upward as focus on profit pays off.

Tucows logo

Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX) reported first-quarter results (pdf) after the market closed yesterday.

The company’s headline financials are a bit convoluted because it sold its mobile business to DISH last year in an earnout deal.

Taking out mobile, revenue for the rest of the business was up 4% year over year. Its adjusted EBITDA measure was essentially flat.

Revenue from its domains segment, including Enom and Tucows, was up 3% year over year. The company continues to focus on profitability for the segment and reported a 14% increase in gross margin dollars compared to the first quarter of 2020. Adjusted EBITDA for the domains segment was $13.8 million, up $2.3 million and 20% from Q1 2020.

Tucows notes that Q1 is usually its strongest for domain names.

The pandemic has accelerated a shift to online business, which has helped grow the domain business. Tucows notes that the growth is normalizing, and the next quarter will lap the surge seen as the shift began last year.

Tucows continues to turn in solid renewal numbers. Renewal rates in its wholesale segment were 80%, and its retail were a staggering 86%.

The company manages 25.8 million domains, although not all of them are on its accreditations.

.Com finished last year with a bang – updated rankings

by — Domain Registrars 1 Comment

A strong month for .com.

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 December 2020.

Registrars had a strong December for new .com registrations. GoDaddy’s brands topped 1.1 million new .com registrations.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* 1,109,061 (NYSE: GDDY) (832,844 in November)
2. Namecheap Inc. 293,601 (263,785)
3. Newfold Digital+ 203,348 (232,929)
4. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 188,512 (207,024)
5. Alibaba (HiChina) 169,862 (203,286)
6. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 140,523 (144,030)
7. IONOS^ 112,642 (120,167)
8. CentralNic^^ (AIM: CNIC) 105,075 (80,478)
9. Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) 88,149 (96,220)
10. NameSilo 87,778

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

1. GoDaddy* 55,136,925 (54,735,035 in November)
2. Newfold Digital+  14,582,476 (14,595,094)
3. Tucows** 12,967,927 (12,988,434)
4. Namecheap 7,007,290(6,856,440)
5. Alibaba  6,160,015 (6,133,679)
6. IONOS^ 5,763,174 (5,719,043)
7. TurnCommerce++ 4,582,174 (4,513,069)
8. Google  4,105,308 (4,052,113)
9. CentralNic^^ 2,951,343
10. GMO 2,100,966 (2,149,198)

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, Bigrock, Network Solutions, Register.com, SnapNames registrars, and Crazy Domains/Dreamscape. There are other Newfold registrars, but these are the biggest.
++ Includes NameBright and DropCatch registrars
^ Includes 1&1, PSI, Cronon, United-Domains, Arsys and world4you
^^ Includes Key-Systems, 1API, Internet.bs, TLD Registrar Solutions, RegistryGate, Moniker, Instra

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