Tucows notes earnings, states domain investors are assessing the impact of fresh TLDs
Tucows notes earnings, states domain investors are proceeding cautiously on domain buys as they assess the impact of fresh TLDs.
Tucows noted earnings this afternoon, recording its twelfth consecutive quarter of record revenue (year over year).
The firm generated $30.0 million in revenue during the first quarter of 2013 and noted a slight profit of $0.1 million for the quarter.
That compares to a $1.7 million profit in the same quarter last year. Most of the difference was due to additional investments of regarding $1 million during the quarter for the buyout of fresh Ting clients. Ting is Tucows’ mobile phone offering. The rest was due primarily to foreign exchange and a one time sale of intangible assets in Q1 2012.
Tucows’ Retail business was its big growth driver this quarter, generating $4.3 million compared to $1.8 million in Q1 2012. The retail segment includes domain registrar Hover.com and Ting.
The firm pulled in $2.3 million in Ting mobile device and service sales during the quarter. It finished March with 16,000 Ting subscribers and 26,000 devices under management. That’s 6,000 more subscribers and 11,000 more devices than at the end of 2012.
The portfolio segment, which includes monetizing the firm’s domain portfolio through parking and domain sales, generated $1.1 million in the quarter. That compares to $1.9 million in the same quarter last year. $0.5 million of the decrease was due to lower domain sales, which the firm states was due to lower sales of “big ticket” domains.
In its quarterly note, Tucows claims that it’s seeing evidence that some domain investors are assessing the impact of fresh TLDs on their businesses. This is slowing their domain investment purchases.
