GoDaddy notes earnings, Domain revenue dips from Q4 but up YoY

Domain revenue slips compared to Q4.

GoDaddy (NASDAQ:GDDY) noted Q1 2017 earnings following the bell today.

Topline revenue was $489.7 million, up 12.9% year over year. Bookings hit $624.8 million, up 12.0% year over year.

The domain name business pulled in $240.8 million of revenue in Q1. This is up 10% year over year but is down from $242.5 in Q4 2016.

This is a bit surprising for three reasons.

First, Verisign noted a strong Q1.

Second, GoDaddy returned to the Super Bowl in February this year following taking last year off.

Third, the first quarter is usually a strong one for domain name registrations.

I can think of a handful of reasons why GoDaddy’s revenue from domains may have dipped sequentially.

Keep in mind that this is revenue, not bookings. If GoDaddy sold a lot of domains following the Super Bowl, they would only get a couple months of revenue from them in the quarter. I’ll dig into the 10-Q when it’s released to see how booking did.

Also, its commercial was focused on its site builder GoCentral instead of driving domain sales. Domain registrations ought to have increased as a result of the ad, but not by as much as if it was a commercial pushing domains.

Finally, the difference in revenue can be impacted by just one or two sizable domain names sales from the NameFind portfolio.