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Shakeup on the .com leader boards, Namecheap tops 5 million

by — Domain Registrars 3 Comments

Lots of shifting and Namecheap hits a milestone.

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 September 2019.

There was a lot of shakeup this month.

On the new registrations chart, Xin Net fell out of the top ten after its monthly volume reduced from 220k to 51k. Hosting Concepts B.V. d/b/a OpenProvider, an at-cost registrar, surged into the top 10.

On the total .com leaderboard, GMO replaced NameSilo in the #10 spot after giving it up to NameSilo the month before.

Namecheap hit a big milestone, surging past 5 million .com domains under management.

Finally, on the clerical side, I’ve added Crazy Domains to Web.com’s totals starting this month. Web.com acquired CrazyDomains’ parent company Dreamscape last year.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 855,287 (862,732 in August)
2. Chengdu West 222,511
3. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 180,825 (187,769)
4. Namecheap Inc. 163,226 (161,107)
5. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 138,929 (141,014 )
6. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 124,810 (126,603)
7. Alibaba (HiChina) 105,294 (136,895)
8. GMO 95,565 (66,910)
9. Web.com++ 71,894
10. OpenProvider 67,647 (n/a)

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

1. GoDaddy* 51,253,800 (51,098,287 in August)
2. Tucows** 13,047,695 (13,123,695)
3. Web.com++ 7,031,650 (6,607,353)
4. Endurance+ 6,873,843 (6,886,901)
5. Alibaba 6,118,945 (6,189,184)
6. United Internet^ 5,549,036 (5,549,520)
7. Namecheap 5,051,943 (4,978,908)
8. Xin Net Technology Corporation 4,518,714 (4,575,392)
9. Google 2,845,811 (2,755,721)
10. GMO 2,183,060 (n/a)

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, 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
^ Includes 1&1, PSI, Cronon, United-Domains, Arsys and world4you

.Com Winners & Losers: NameSilo enters top 10 overall

by — Domain Registrars 1 Comment

NameSilo bumps GMO off the list.

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 August 2019.

NameSilo has broken into the top 10 for .com domains under management, pushing GMO off the list. On the monthly charts, there was a bit of place-swapping but the same 10 registrars are the list for August that were on it for July.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 862,732 (854,643 in July)
2. Xin Net Technology Corporation 219,802 (321,742)
3. Tucows** 187,769 (NASDAQ:TCX) (194,581)
4. NameCheap Inc. 161,107 (161,790)
5. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 141,014 (134,583)
6. Alibaba (HiChina) 136,895 (126,586)
7. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 126,603 (129,559)
8. Dynadot 87,388 (131,601)
9. NameSilo (CSE:URL) 69,045 (89,027)
10. GMO 66,910 (66,323)

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

1. GoDaddy* 51,098,287 (51,022,025 in July)
2. Tucows** 13,123,695 (13,192,663)
3. Endurance+ 6,886,901 (6,896,718)
4. Web.com++ 6,607,353 (6,599,516)
5. Alibaba 6,189,184 (6,232,572)
6. United Internet^ 5,549,520 (5,550,220)
7. Namecheap 4,978,908 (4,915,798)
8. Xin Net Technology Corporation 4,575,392 (4,469,021)
9. Google 2,755,721 (2,662,532)
10. NameSilo 2,127,096 (n/a)

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, Enom, Ascio and EPAG
+ 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

November’s Top 5 domain name stories

by — Uncategorized 1 Comment

.Org dominated the news last month.

Image that reads "Top Five Posts" with the number five next to it

November was a busy month in the domain name business, led by a planned takeover of the .Org registry. I’ve grouped many of the .org-related articles into one on the top 5 posts list. Here’s the full roundup of what got the most views on Domain Name Wire last month:

1. Private equity company to acquire .Org – There are a lot of connections to ICANN including its former CEO. Ethos is buying a money printing press and many groups aren’t happy about it.

2. Why this weird domain sold for so much money – You have to understand Chinese to understand this domain name.

3. Kit.com is losing its domain name, switching to Kit.co – The woes of a domain name lease.

4. All domain investors should read this analysis – I can’t take credit for it.

5. Tucows exits its domain name portfolio – Citing changes in domain name monetization and the domain aftermarket, Tucows sells off its portfolio.

Miss any podcasts? Check them out here:

Richard Lau and James Morfopoulos – This episode got rave reviews! Listen

What to expect at NamesCon 2020 – It’s coming up next month! Listen

James Booth – James returned to the show to talk about what’s selling, what’s not, and what the future holds. Listen

.Com Winners & Losers: Dynadot surges

by — Domain Registrars 3 Comments

Dynadot returned to the top 10; Chinese registrar Chengdu West plummets.

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 July 2019.

There was a shakeup in the top ten registrars for monthly .com volume. Chengdu West fell out of the top 10. Dynadot surged back in to spot #6. NameSilo dropped a lot but still remained in top 10.

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

1. GoDaddy.com* (NYSE: GDDY) 854,643 (844,698 in June)
2. Xin Net Technology Corporation 321,742 (254,177)
3. Tucows** (NASDAQ:TCX) 194,581 (188,913)
4. NameCheap Inc. 161,790 (148,553)
5. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) 134,583 (118,274)
6. Dynadot 131,601 (n/a)
7. Endurance+ (NASDAQ: EIGI) 129,559 (117,245)
8. Alibaba (HiChina) 126,586 (158,341)
9. NameSilo (CSE:URL) 89,027 (149,951)
10. GMO 66,323 (n/a)

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

1. GoDaddy* 51,022,025 (51,012,237 in June)
2. Tucows** 13,192,663 (13,265,609)
3. Endurance+ 6,896,718 (6,928,107)
4. Web.com++ 6,599,516 (6,638,229)
5. Alibaba 6,232,572 (6,250,554)
6. United Internet^ 5,550,220 (5,558,557)
7. Namecheap 4,915,798 (4,855,101)
8. Xin Net Technology Corporation 4,469,021 (4,201,902)
9. Google 2,662,532 (2,580,499)
10. GMO 2,104,444 (2,081,293)

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, Enom, Ascio and EPAG
+ 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 exits its domain name portfolio

by — Domain Registrars 9 Comments

Company no longer holds a portfolio of domains for the secondary market.

Tucows logoTucows (NASDAQ: TCX) released its Q3 earnings yesterday. You can see the numbers here (pdf), but they aren’t the headline for the domain segment. Instead, it’s this: after many years of owning its a domain portfolio, Tucows has exited that business.

It still owns a portfolio of surname domain names that it uses for its Realnames email service. But it no longer holds a portfolio of domain names to monetize via pay-per-click and to sell on the aftermarket.

It sold the remainder of its portfolio over the past few months. It made a bulk sale of $1.9 million during the third quarter and $1.4 million after the quarter ended. (I believe that GoDaddy was the buyer.)

Tucows CEO Elliot Noss explained the change in the aftermarket business in the latest pre-recorded investor conference call (pdf):

We have owned our own portfolio for a little over a decade now, and it’s been a great tactical business, consistently generating sales in the range of $2 and $3 million annually, with relatively little ebb and flow, and with some years punctuated by a larger bulk sale or two.

Throughout this period, two things were true. We were always adding to the portfolio through the expiry stream and we were always needing to increase the transaction volume in order to maintain the same levels. At the same time, the underlying demand in this segment was declining as the increasing sophistication of SEO and related online advertising technologies reduced the returns on direct navigation domain names. We have all witnessed the maturation of online advertising technologies over this time as they evolved from a relatively blunt instrument to an amazing precision tool that now tracks every element of our life with great accuracy and provides incredibly efficient, if sometimes annoying, results. Through this maturation, the value of domain name traffic has declined to the point where we made the decision, starting a couple of years ago, to first reduce our exposure to this segment, and  finally, to exit it completely. We do want to note that the value of a premium domain name, as a name for a company itself, has never waned — it’s at least what it was when we started this exercise –and might even be up over time. Despite the fact that premium names was the segment of the market that we focused on, the value of leads was the primary driver for the health of this segment.

Tl;dr: Direct navigation and domain parking went to shit, which has dramatically changed the domain name investing business.

There’s some good news for domain investors in this announcement. Investors were annoyed that Tucows would cherry-pick expiring inventory for its own portfolio. Now it’s sending all of it to GoDaddy Auctions.