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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.

Latest .com winners report

by — Domain Registrars 2 Comments

Here’s how domain name registrars peformed in January.

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 January 2021.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 978,334 (1,109,061 in December 2020)
2. Namecheap Inc. 291,257 (293,601)
3. Newfold Digital+ 212,014 (203,348)
4. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 205,679 (188,512)
5. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL)  169,363 (140,523)
6. Alibaba (HiChina) 154,990 (169,862)
7. Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) 113,294 (88,149)
8. Dynadot 98,314
9. IONOS^ 79,960 (112,642)
10. CentralNic^^ (AIM: CNIC) 73,360 (105,075)

I left Hongkong Domain Name Information Management Co off the list even though it had 91,467 new .com registrations. The site ICANN links to for this registrar has a 2017 copyright date, no SSL certificate, and a @qq.com email address. I’m going to assume these registrations are not from a public-facing registrar.

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

1. GoDaddy* 55,445,265 (55,136,925 in December 2020)
2. Newfold Digital+  14,525,308 (14,582,476)
3. Tucows** 12,977,992 (12,967,927)
4. Namecheap 7,175,485 (7,007,290)
5. Alibaba  6,122,968 (6,160,015)
6. IONOS^  5,773,208 (5,763,174)
7. TurnCommerce++ 4,647,632 (4,582,174)
8. Google  4,193,876 (4,105,308)
9. CentralNic^^ 3,000,932 (2,951,343)
10. GMO  2,089,337 (2,100,966)

NameSilo crossed 2 million .com domains under management and is slightly below GMO.

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

.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

Tucows throws weight behind Nominet (.UK) initiative

by — Policy & Law 0 Comments

Tucows is the largest registrar to date to support the initiative.

Graphic with black text "A battle over the future of Nominet" with logos for Tucows, Gandi and Namecheap

Tucows, the largest wholesale domain name registrar, has said it will vote in favor of an initiative to replace five of Nominet’s board members. Nominet is a non-profit that runs the .UK country code domain name.

The registrar joins Namecheap, Gandi and many other registrars and hosting companies that will vote for change at the Extraordinary General Meeting on March 22.

The initiative seeks to refocus Nominet on running .UK rather than using profits to invest in other lines of business. I wrote about the initiative and its goals earlier this week.

In a blog post, Tucows threw cold water on Nominet CEO Russell Haworth’s claim that voting for the initiative would damage Nominet’s stability and reputation. Instead, it argues that refocusing the non-profit .UK would improve its stability. Writing about country code domain operators in general, Ashley La Bolle, Director of Domains at Tucows, stated, “The registry should have a narrow and focused mandate, deliver a stable and secure service, operate in a risk-averse manner, and manage costs appropriately.”

Votes will be apportioned based on the total number of .UK domains under management of those who vote, although each voter is capped at 3% of the total. Tucows will hit that cap with about 380,000 .UK domains under management.

 

 

 

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:57 — 25.6MB) | Embed

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