Verisign, which manages the gTLDs .COM and .NET, published its financial report for the Q4 of 2023 and the entire past year as a whole. He captures two seemingly contradictory trends. The number of domain names under Verisign's management is steadily decreasing, while revenues and net profit are also steadily growing.
According to Domain Incite, the .COM has recently been shrinking at an average rate of 1,500 domain names per day. Verisign CEO Jim Bidzos, speaking to analysts, once again named the main reason for the decline in the number of registrations as the decline in the Chinese market, caused by both the tightening of local regulatory requirements and the general weakening of the Chinese economy. In the Q4 of last year alone, the number of domain names in zones managed by Verisign registered by Chinese registrars decreased by 2.2 million. The overall decrease in the number of registrations in .COM and .NET domains was 1.2 million over the same period.
The number of new registrations in domain zones also decreased: it amounted to 9 million compared to 9.7 million in the Q4 of last year. Bidzos believes that the negative trends in the Chinese market will continue this year. He predicts that the number of registrations in generic top-level domains .COM and .NET will remain approximately at current levels, with possible fluctuations of no more than 1% in either direction.
At the same time, Verisign's financial results turned out to be quite positive. True, revenues from the Chinese market decreased by $14.4 million, but overall the company's revenues amounted to $380 million in the 4th quarter of last year - 3% more than a year earlier. Net profit also increased: from $179 million in the 4th quarter of 2022 to 265 million in the Q4 of 2023. Overall, last year Verisign’s revenues amounted to $1.49 billion, an increase of 4.8%.
The contradiction between rising incomes and declining registrations is extremely simple to explain. For three years in a row, Verisign has increased the price of registrations and renewals in the .COM domain zone by 7%. The company's contract with ICANN provides for the possibility of raising prices four times, and Verisogn has already officially confirmed that this year, starting September 1, wholesale prices for registrars will increase again - from $9.59 to $10.26. At the same time, the company's management is not inclined to see a connection between price increases and a reduction in the number of registered domain names.
