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.Com winners and Losers: Dynadot stays hot

by — Domain Registrars 9 Comments

Dynadot remains in the top ten registrars for new .com registrations.

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 April 2019.

Dynadot jumped into the top ten last month and it managed to stay there again this month. Dynadot has stopped its $6.99 promotional price on .com, so it will be interesting to see what happens when the Verisign/ICANN reports catch up to September.

NameSilo nudged its way back into the top 10 this month.

Also notable on the monthly chart is that Web.com (Network Solutions, Register.com) fell out of the top 10.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 936,916 (970,751 in April)
2. Xin Net Technology Corporation 244,299 (324,617)
3. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 194,947 (191,620)
4. Chengdu West 157,668 (82,351)
5. NameCheap Inc. 154,281 (152,606)
6. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 127,762 (125,059)
7. Alibaba (HiChina) 127,090 (130,946)
8. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 119,903 (119,976)
9. NameSilo (CSE:URL) 86,680
10. Dynadot 85,307 (104,837)

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

1. GoDaddy* 51,026,467 (50,940,640 in April)
2. Tucows** 12,410,988 (12,484,323)
3. Endurance+ 6,981,256 (7,026,808)
4. Web.com++ 6,677,492 (6,713,881)
5. Alibaba 6,308,304 (6,288,135)
6. United Internet^ 5,575,836 (5,609,664)
7. Namecheap 4,799,244(4,745,085)
8. Xin Net Technology Corporation 3,982,474 (3,814,331)
9. Google 2,506,924 (2,434,742)
10. GMO 2,062,451 (2,026,751)

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

Tucows releases earnings, quantifies lift from GoDaddy Auctions

by — Domain Registrars 2 Comments

Margin contribution from domains up due to price increases and Ascio; Tucows also explains lift from moving Enom expiry stream.

Picture of stock ticker board with words "earnings announcement" below it

Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX) released second quarter earnings (pdf) yesterday after the close of the market.

The company has three business lines: domain names, mobile service and internet service.

For the domains segment, Q2 revenue was $60.5 million, up from $56.8 million in the same quarter last year.

The domain business can be further broken down into wholesale and retail. The Wholesale Business is its reseller network including Enom, OpenSRS and Ascio. Retail includes its Hover brand.

The wholesale business contributed $51.3 million revenue and the retail business contributed $8.8 million. Tucows also generates a small amount of money from its own portfolio of domains.

Total registrations are growing very slowly. Total Q2 registrations increased 1% year-over-year to 4 million including the lift from acquiring Ascio last year. Without Ascio, registration volume dropped 3.5%.

So why is revenue going up? The company raised prices last year and it’s boosting results across the board.

Gross margin in the wholesale business was up 20% year-over-year, and the domain portion of this (excluding value-added services) was up 30%. 40% of this increase was primarily due to the price increases and the other 60% is from the Ascio resellers.

Tucows also explained why its gross margin contribution for Value-Added Services jumped 19% in Q2 compared to Q1 of this year. It’s because the company moved its Enom expired domain inventory from NameJet to GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY).

 

Dynadot jumps into top 10

by — Domain Registrars 2 Comments

Dynadot jumps into the top ten registrars for new .com registrations.

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 April 2019.

An anomaly this month is Dynadot, which jumped into the top ten for monthly .com registrations. This pushed NameSilo out of the top ten. I think this has to do with pricing; while NameSilo’s .com sale ended at the end of Q1, Dynadot has continued with discounted pricing. It’s charging $6.99 right now for new .com registrations.

While this means NameSilo is absent from the monthly board this month, it should soon appear on the top ten overall. It has crossed two million .com domains under management but this isn’t reflected in the ICANN numbers, which only go through April.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* 970,751 (NYSE: GDDY) (1,045,199 in March)
2. Xin Net Technology Corporation 324,617 (294,415)
3. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 191,620 (206,170)
4. NameCheap Inc. 152,606 (160,737)
5. Alibaba (HiChina) 130,946 (126,659)
6. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 125,059 (138,627)
7. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 119,976 (135,927)
8. Dynadot 104,837
9. Web.com++  88,873 (83,600)
10. Chengdu West 82,351

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

1. GoDaddy* 50,940,640 (50,831,723 in March)
2. Tucows**  12,484,323 (12,552,098)
3. Endurance+ 7,026,808 (7,065,847)
4. Web.com++ 6,713,881 (6,717,360)
5. Alibaba 6,288,135 (6,226,249)
6. United Internet^ 5,609,664 (5,630,889)
7. Namecheap 4,745,085 (4,694,598)
8. Xin Net Technology Corporation 3,814,331 (3,500,398)
9. Google 2,434,742 (2,361,414)
10. GMO 2,026,751 (2,007,437)

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

Tucows offers “Whois Publicity” for domain names

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

Customers can now publish their information in Whois.

Graphic with the acronym GDPR for General Data Protection Regulation

Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX) has started allowing customers on its Enom and OpenSRS platforms to display their information publicly in Whois—as long as their reseller enables it.

Called “Whois Publicity“, the new option allows registrants to include their registrant information in Whois. Whois will still not show Admin, Tech and Billing contacts even with the Whois Publicity option turned on.

The company masked Whois information for all “thin Whois” domains on its platform after the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation went into effect last year.

ICANN requires all registrars to allow customers to show their information in Whois, but few have enabled this option so far. That’s because ICANN added a loophole to this requirement:

7.2.1. As soon as commercially reasonable, Registrar MUST provide the opportunity for the Registered Name Holder to provide its Consent to publish the additional contact information outlined in Section 2.3 of Appendix A for the Registered Name Holder.

“Commercially reasonable” could mean one year, two, or more. Many registrars are probably waiting for the temporary specification in which this requirement exists to be made permanent.

(Hat tip: George Kirikos)

Tucows signs deal with Verizon, lowers 2019 guidance

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

Company takes big step to clean up wireless carrier problems.

Verizon Wireless logoTucows (NASDAQ: TCX) has signed a new mobile service deal with Verizon, marking a big shift in its Ting mobile service.

The company offers mobile service, high-speed internet and domain names. It is the world’s second largest domain name registrar, including its OpenSRS and Enom reseller platforms.

Its mobile service is a reseller of large carriers in a relationship known as mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). Think of it kind of like a webhosting company reselling domain names — which is exactly how Tucows’ sells many of its domain names, through hosting companies and other resellers.

Last quarter Tucows noted increased issues with T-Mobile, one of the mobile providers it resells. Drawing another comparison to the domain industry, the challenges it had with T-Mobile remind me a lot of when a domain parking company faces suspect clawbacks from Google.

Tucows is dropping T-Mobile in favor of Verizon. It also has a deal with Sprint that is extended through September 2020.

T-Mobile and Sprint are merging but the merger is delayed as it goes through regulatory challenges. Tucows said it wanted to work with the combined entity but couldn’t wait any longer to resolve the issues. Also, adding Verizon insulates the company from the risks of the pending merger.

Shifting many of its customers from T-Mobile to Verizon will be expensive and adds to woes the company is experiencing with mobile. It expects to spend as much as $15 million transitioning customers over time. About $3 million of that will hit this year.

The company has lowered its 2019 cash EBITDA guidance from $62 million to $52 million to reflect the transition, overall mobile issues and carrier penalties.

It’s a big hit, but the company says it sets the Ting mobile product up for better long term success.

Shares in Tucows dropped 13% to $52.97 yesterday on the news. The stock is up in morning trading today.