Here are some Stocks for Betting on Fresh Top Level Domain Names

Want to invest in fresh TLDs through the stock market? Here are some options.

On Friday I wrote regarding how Top Level Domain Holdings’ stock shot up 25% on news of the contract signing for the .London top level domain name.

TLDH, which trades on the London AIM under TLDH, has seen its shares nearly triple since early October. The firm is a pure-play fresh TLD applicant.

There are other public firms you can invest in if you want to bet on the success of fresh top level domain names.

CentralNic – CentralNic floated on the London AIM (CNIC) in early September. Compared to its opening price on September 2, the stock closed Friday up 74% in just over two months. The firm is best known for offering third level domain names, but it is also the backend registry behind 60 different fresh TLD applications. Although not as pure-play as TLDH, its success will depend a lot on the success of fresh TLDs.

Tucows – Domain name registrar Tucows (TCX) is the rare public firm that has by now profited handsomely from fresh TLDs. It did this by striking deals to abandon its applications. Its stock shot up following pocketing around $3 million from dropping its bids for .marketing and .media. The firm also holds a minority interest in the contested .online, .group, .tech and .store applications. Regardless of if its on the winning teams for these domains and how they do, Tucows can benefit from fresh TLDs as a domain name registrar.

Demand Media – Demand Media (DMD) is getting ready to spin off its domain name businesses into a fresh firm called Rightside. If you want a piece of Rightside, for now you’re also going to have to buy into Demand’s content business. Rightside is positioned to profit from fresh TLDs in a number of ways. First, it’s an applicant. Second, it’s the backend registry provider for Donuts’ domain names, and can participate in regarding 100 of them. Third, it owns domain name registrars (eNom, Name.com) that will profit from selling fresh TLDs. Finally, its NameJet service is handling auctions for some fresh TLDs.

Web.com – Web.com (WWWW) owns Network Solutions and Register.com, as well as a piece of the aforementioned NameJet. Its registrars will benefit from registrations of fresh TLDs.

Verisign – If you believe fresh TLDs are going to shift the namespace away from .com, Verisign is a stock you might want to short. The firm has a nifty business as the .com registry. It’s also the backend registry for a number of hundred fresh TLD applications, but almost all of them are .brand applications.

(Note: I do not have positions in any of these stocks, unless it’s through a mutual fund.)