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Takedowns on the Web with Elliot Noss – DNW Podcast #326

by — Podcasts 2 Comments

Which entities should take down websites, and when?

Headshot of Elliot Noss with the words "Takedowns on the web with Elliot Noss DNW Podcast #326"

There has been a lot of talk about censorship and taking down websites over the past couple of months. On today’s show, I talk with Tucows CEO Elliot Noss about the issue. Tucows is one of the world’s largest domain name registrars. We discuss the role that registrars and registries could play in taking down domains used for nefarious purposes, and how Noss’ take on the issue has changed over time. He also explains what Tucows is doing about it.

Also: New DNS Abuse Institute, a peachy domain sale, bitcoin domain, and more.

Sponsor: Sav

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Tucows announces earnings, $40 million buyback

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

Domain name business continues to chug along.

Picture of stock chart with the words earnings report

Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX) announced Q4 and full-year 2020 earnings after the market closed yesterday. It also announced that its board authorized the purchase of up to $40 million of its stock on the open market.

The earnings report requires some backstory to fully appreciate it.

Until late last year, Tucows had three main services:

  1. Mobile phone services sold under its Ting brand.
  2. Fiber-to-the home internet services sold under its Ting brand.
  3. Domain name services including Enom, OpenSRS, Hover, and a couple of other brands.

It sold its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) business to DISH last year. The deal is an earn-out arrangement in which DISH pays based on the performance of the Ting subscribers it took over. Tucows will also provide a mobile services enabler (MSE) platform to help MVNOs with billing, provisioning, customer service, etc.

Q4 mobile service revenue plummeted due to exiting the business. But the Fiber and Domains businesses continued to chug along.

Domain Name Wire readers mostly care about the domain business, so let’s dig in a bit.

The wholesale arm of the business saw modest Q4 revenue growth from $51.4 million in 2019 to $52.8 million in 2020. Retail was essentially flat year over year. And aftermarket (portfolio) domain sales dropped to about $300,000 because Tucows sold the rest of its portfolio (save for surname domains) at the end of 2019. (The company still earns aftermarket revenue from its expired domain stream but does not break out this number.)

The net-net is that total Q4 domain revenue and profit was flat year over year.

Tucows has been shifting the focus to improving margins in the domain business. If you take out the bulk domain portfolio sale from Q4 of 2019, gross margin dollars from the domain business increased 8% in 2020 compared to 2019. The number is similar for Q4 2020 compared to Q4 2019.

The company also benefited from a surge in domain registrations as businesses moved online due to the pandemic. In its wholesale channel, new registrations in Q4 were up 17% year over year. This is down from 40% in Q2 and 30% in Q3, which were the biggest growth quarters across the industry.

So, going forward, you can look at Tucows as a tale of two businesses: the cash cow domain business and the internet service (and perhaps MSE) growth business.

 

 

Top .com domain name registrars

by — Domain Registrars 3 Comments

Welcoming CentralNic to the top 10

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 October 2020.

This is the first month that I’m aggregating CentralNic’s major registrars, which puts them in the top 10 on both lists.

Two of the anomalies from last month ended up being just that — anomalies. Hosting Concepts/OpenProvider still posted a strong month but didn’t make the top 10, and United Internet’s PSI brand came back to earth after a sudden surge in the prior month.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 877,848 (914,038 in September)
2. Namecheap Inc. 286,290 (284,154)
3. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 231,248 (231,791)
4. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 181,262 (178,499)
5. Alibaba (HiChina) 163,555 (155,926)
6. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 154,803 (157,453)
7. West 263 98,276
8. Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) 94,842 (97,021)
9. United Internet^ 79,506 (142,553)
10. CentralNic^^ (AIM: CNIC) 73,193

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

1. GoDaddy* 54,610,243 (54,450,745 in September)
2. Tucows** 12,977,614 (12,963,637)
3. Endurance+ 7,279,094 (7,232,301)
4. Web.com++ 7,074,344 (7,066,244)
5. Namecheap 6,689,036 (6,516,860)
6. Alibaba 6,086,689 (5,947,947)
7. United Internet^ 5,655,462 (5,639,402)
8. Google 3,994,114 (3,924,273)
9. GMO 2,174,353 (2,191,732)
10. CentralNic 2,145,282

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
^^ Includes Key-Systems, 1API and Moniker, Instra

Latest .com ranking has some surprises

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

Two registrars posted big gains in September.

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 September 2020.

There were a couple of surprises in the monthly numbers. Perhaps they are anomalies. First, Hosting Concepts/OpenProvider had a surge in one-year .com registrations, placing it in the top ten. Second, United Internet’s PSI brand posted a surge that doubled the overall company’s .com registrations compared to the prior month.

CentralNic’s brands continue to grow, and I’ll add them as a combined entity starting next month.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 914,038 (970,570 in August)
2. Namecheap Inc. 284,154 (276,557)
3. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 231,791 (245,360)
4. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 178,499 (199,710)
5. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 157,453 (168,619)
6. Alibaba (HiChina) 155,926 (221,686)
7. United Internet^ 142,553 (70,580)
8. Hosting Concepts B.V. d/b/a Openprovider 101,645
9. Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) 97,021 (108,029)
10. NameSilo (CSE:URL) 71,291 (68,308)

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

1. GoDaddy* 54,450,745 (54,215,433 in August)
2. Tucows** 12,963,637 (12,930,920)
3. Endurance+ 7,232,301 (7,183,871)
4. Web.com++ 7,066,244 (7,041,224)
5. Namecheap 6,516,860 (6,338,718)
6. Alibaba 5,947,947 (5,962,510)
7. United Internet^ 5,639,402 (5,554,345)
8. Google 3,924,273 (3,846,200)
9. Xin Net Technology Corporation 2,244,819 (2,539,828)
10. GMO 2,191,732 (2,212,268)

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

Top .Com domain name registrars

by — Domain Registrars 1 Comment

Xin Net continues its fall, Key-Systems jumps.

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 August 2020.

Xin Net continues its precipitous fall in domains under management, likely due to Chinese domain investors not renewing their domains. Also notable this month is Key-Systems making an entry into the top 10 monthly adds with a startling increase in registrations. I will start aggregating CentralNic’s registrars for inclusion in the list if that happens again.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 970,570 (980,072 in August)
2. Namecheap Inc. 276,557 (281,870)
3. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 245,360 (248,333)
4. Alibaba (HiChina) 221,686 (193,608)
5. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 199,710 (200,407)
6. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 168,619 (169,345)
7. Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) 108,029 (109,552)
8. United Internet^ 70,580 (71,225)
9. NameSilo (CSE:URL) 68,308 (57,944)
10. Key-Systems CentralNic 62,757

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

1. GoDaddy* 54,215,433 (54,055,970 in August)
2. Tucows** 12,930,920 (12,926,699)
3. Endurance+ 7,183,871 (7,123,142)
4. Web.com++ 7,041,224 (7,035,136)
5. Namecheap 6,338,718 (6,177,045)
6. Alibaba 5,962,510 (5,923,722)
7. United Internet^ 5,554,345 (5,552,903)
8. Google 3,846,200 (3,753,882)
9. Xin Net Technology Corporation 2,539,828 (2,793,597)
10. GMO 2,212,268 (2,249,611)

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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