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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

Wix changes product name from virus to nicotine

by — Services 0 Comments

Company dumps Covid-sounding brand name.

Screenshot of Velo by Wix web development platform

Wix has changed the name of its web development platform from the Covid-sounding Corvid to Velo.

Each time I got an email this year from Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) about its Corvid web development system, I thought the company is providing an update about Covid-19.

I’m not the only person. Wix has finally decided to change the name of Corvid.

The new brand is Velo. Google ‘Velo’ and you’ll find that Velo is the brand name of a line of nicotine pouches and lozenges. But if you aren’t into sucking on nicotine, Velo is a much cleaner brand than Corvid.

Wix is the latest in a long line of companies that picked decent brand names only to have them take on a second meaning (or, in this case, to be easily confused with something bad). Remember that mobile payments service called ISIS?

Wix published a video making light of the situation:

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

Why Wix’s stock dropped after today’s earnings report

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

Stock drops after company posts another loss due to increased ad spend.

A picture of a stock chart with red and green blocks and the words "earnings report", with the Wix.com logo

Earlier this week, I wrote about how web presence companies like Wix and GoDaddy are ramping up advertising to capture increased demand for web building platforms during the pandemic. The upside is future earnings growth; the downside is short term depressed earnings.

Website building platform Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) reported Q3 earnings today and Wall Street was not impressed. Shares are trading down 6% at the time of posting while the NASDAQ is up.

It was definitely a mixed bag for the company, but a lot of the down numbers are due to that increased ad investment.

Wix’s topline numbers continue to be strong and exceeded the company’s guidance for the quarter.

Q3 revenue was up 29% year over year (Q2 was up 27% YoY). Collections (a Wix measure of cash sales) was up 36% year over year (Q2 was 33% YoY).

But free cash flow fell off a cliff due, in part, to the increased advertising investment. The company spent $37 million more on advertising in Q3 2020 than it did in the same quarter last year. While Wix anticipated the drop and it wasn’t as bad as its guidance, it’s still a stark change. Wix maintained strong free cash flow in Q2 (up 52% year over year) with increased marketing spend as well. The company expects suppressed free cash flow again in Q4, with total free cash flow this year of $122-$127 million, compared to $127 in 2019. It’s slightly higher ($3M) if you remove capital expenditures for the buildout of the future Wix HQ.

While the company is investing heavily to take advantage of the surge in interest in building websites due to the pandemic, it takes time for these investments to start paying back on free cash flow.

But growth in new users slowed during the quarter. The company added 7.8 million new users in Q3, compared to 9.3 million in Q2.

The number of paid subscribers increased by a net 302,000 during the quarter, compared to 346,000 in Q2.

Perhaps more frustrating for investors is that the company posted another net loss on Wix’s non-GAAP measure: ($8.0) million compared to positive $20.8 million in Q3 2019. (It also posted a non-GAAP loss in Q2). Its GAAP loss was ($56.8) million, compared to ($17.4) million in Q3 2019.

For investors that look only at current metrics, this sets off alarm bells.

Web presence companies ramp up ad spend as demand soars

by — Domain Registrars 1 Comment

GoDaddy and Wix spend more to capture demand surge during the pandemic.

Screenshot of Google Ads for the term "domain name?

Top ads for “domain name” on Google.

It’s been a good year for service providers that help people establish a web presence. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to shift business online in whole or in part. From yoga instructors offering online instruction to restaurants adding online take-out ordering, businesses have flocked to companies like GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) and Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) for help.

GoDaddy has added more net paying customers (over 1 million) during the first three quarters of this year than it ever has during three quarters in its 23-year history. Collections (sales) at Wix were up 33% in Q2 2020 compared to Q2 2019.

These added sales aren’t purely organic, though. The companies are spending heavily on advertising to capture this new demand.

GoDaddy’s Q3 marketing and advertising spend was up 45% year over year to $115.4M. It was up 16% to $104.4 million in Q2.

Wix doesn’t report Q3 results until later this week. In Q2, the company increased its acquisition marketing spend by 90% year over year to $75 million.

This is paying dividends. Wix reported that it recouped $38 million of its Q2 acquisition advertising in new sales through the end of that quarter. It expects people who signed up in Q2 to spend $570 million over their lifetime.

Increased advertising spend comes in two buckets.

One is somewhat natural: as more people search for ways to get their business online, the companies will pay more for Google ad clicks targeting relevant terms. The companies are also likely bidding more or expanding their ad budgets across other media.

Not all companies are following this track. Web.com, the parent company of Network Solutions and Web.com, has seen a dramatic drop in new registrations this year. A likely explanation is that it has stopped advertising on Google for domain name related terms. It used to advertise low first-year prices (a couple of dollars for a .com) on search ads. I suspect that the increased bid prices weren’t delivering the ROI it hoped.

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