Verisign, the registry for the gTLDs .COM and .NET, has published its Financial Report for Q3 of this year. It mainly examines economic indicators and looks quite positive from this point of view. The company's revenue for the reporting period amounted to $391 million, an increase of 3.8% compared to the same period last year. And net profit increased from $188 million in Q3 2023 to $201 million in Q3 of this year.
However, Domain Name Wire, reporting this news, reminds that the growth in revenue and profit was achieved primarily due to another price increase. If you look at the operating indicators, which are also reflected in the report, the situation does not look so rosy. The total number of registrations in the .COM and .NET domain zones has fallen once again – for the sixth quarter in a row and by 1.1 million. As of September 30 of this year, there were 169.6 million domain names in these domains – 2.5% less than a year earlier. The number of new registrations during the third quarter was 9.3 million – against 9.9 million during the same period last year. Even the average level of registration renewals has decreased – from 73.4% last year to 72.7% this year. (However, the exact renewal figures can only be calculated 45 days after the end of the quarter, so the data provided are not final).
Previously, Verisign stubbornly blamed the cooling of the Chinese domain market for the decline in .COM and .NET. Now they will have to look for other arguments: the main source of the decline in the number of domain names was the US market, which lost about 850,000 registrations. What makes things even more complicated for Verisign is that its contract with ICANN allows it to raise .COM prices four times over the six-year term of the agreement. And it has already raised all of its price increases. For the remaining two years of the contract, prices will remain flat, and it will be interesting to see how that affects Verisign's bottom line.
