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JPMorgan analyst cautions on domain growth

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Auty believes base of .com/.net domains missed his Q3 forecast.

Verisign logoJPMorgan analyst Sterling Auty lowered his forecast for growth of the domain base at Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) in Q3. He lowered his estimate from 1.62 million net adds to just 1.27 million based on zone data from Verisign’s website.

In the same quarter last year, Verisign’s official tally was 1.99 million growth of .com/.net.

Starting this year, Verisign no longer provides a quarterly growth forecast. It only gives an annual forecast. These forecasts are easy to hit because it can pull levers to push registrations. So you can expect full year growth to be within Verisign’s forecast of 3.0% to 4.25% on 153.0 million, or 4.59 million to 6.51 million for the year. Through the first half of the year, growth was 3.1 million domains.

My general observation is that many registrars are offering cut-rate .com registration prices on first-year registrations starting late last year. Verisign offers rebates and promotions to registrars that reduces the cost to less than its standard $7.85 fee.

Auty noted that a shortfall in new registrations could impact GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) and Wix (NASDAQ: WIX).

GoDaddy has been selling some of its valuable domain inventory lately. This sometimes happens toward the end of the quarter and boosts the company’s numbers.

Shares in Verisign and Wix are down about 2% today. Shares in GoDaddy are down about 5% at publication.

Wix reports Q2 2019 earnings, upgrades outlook

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Company upgrades outlook for the rest of the year after topping its own forecast for Q2.

Wix website builder logoWebsite builder Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) reported earnings today and raised its financial outlook for the rest of the year.

For the second quarter of 2019, Wix reported revenue of $185.4 million, above its forecasted range of $182-184 million and up 27% year-over-year. Its collections (which are essentially cash receipts) hit $199.6 million in the quarter, up 25% year-over-year.

The company added a net 132,000 paying subscribers in the quarter, bringing its total to 4.3 million. It also added 5.7 million registered users. Most registered users use the product for free; about 3% are paying users.

The net adds number is well below the 180,000 it added in the first quarter of the year, which is usually a good quarter for people starting websites. But it’s also a lot lower than its results in Q2 of last year when it added a net 205,000 paying customers. That might be because it eliminated its least expensive plan, which let customers connect a domain name to a site for $5 a month. The cheapest plan is now $13 a month

I built Comptroller.com on Wix. You can read about my experience here.

Wix nets 180k paying subscribers in Q1

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Wix adds fewer paying customers in Q1 compared to a year ago.

Wix website builder logoWebsite builder Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) added a net 180,000 paying customers in Q1 2019, the company reported in its earnings release today. That brings the total to 4.2 million.

By comparison, it added 231,000 net paying customers in Q1 2018 and 147,000 in Q4 2018.

Wix added 6.6 million new registered users in the quarter, bringing the total to 148 million. Only about 3% of its registered users are paying customers.

Revenue for the quarter was $174.3 million, up 27% year-over-year. Collections (essentially billings) were up 26% to $200.4 million.

The company expects Q2 revenue in the $182 million – $184 million range.

Read the DNW Wix review.

Wix hits 4 million paid subscribers

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Company adds 147k net paying subscribers during Q4.

Website building system Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) (Wix review) reported earnings and subscriber numbers today.

The company added a net 147,000 premiums subscriptions in Q4, reaching 4.0 million overall (rounded). That’s 24% growth in subscriptions compared to the end of 2017.

Wix also added 5.9 million registered users in the fourth quarter, bringing the total to 142 million. In other words, about 3% of registered users are paying subscribers.

Q4 revenue was $164.2 million, up 39% year-over-year. Collections (e.g. cash receipts) hit $176.1 million, up 33%.

For the year, revenue was $603.7 million, up 42%. Collections were $658,385, up 36%.

The company forecasts $755 million – $761 million in revenue during 2019 and collections of $817 million – $827 million.

Shares were down over 10% following the earnings release.

Wix returns to Super Bowl with Karlie Kloss ad

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Website builder makes last-minute ad buy for Sunday’s Super Bowl LIII.

Website builder and domain name company Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) will have a commercial in this year’s Super Bowl, making it five Super Bowls in a row for the company. It was a last minute ad buy so it is repurposing a previous ad with supermodel Karlie Kloss.

The Wix Super Bowl commercial will promote Wix’s SEO Wiz and Pro Gallery tools.

Both Squarespace and GoDaddy, which have advertised in previous Super Bowls, will not have commercials in Super Bowl LIII.

Here’s the Wix ad: