Verisign notes slowing .Com/.Net registrations in Q1

Fresh registrations and renewal rate dip.

Verisign noted first quarter earnings today following the bell. The firm noted revenue of $249 million, a 5% increase from the first quarter of 2013.

The firm added 1.28 million net fresh names during the first quarter to .com and .net, ending the quarter with 128.5 million active domain names in the zone.

Some other metrics weren’t as rosy.

Verisign processed 8.6 million fresh domain name registrations for .com and .net last quarter. That’s below the 8.8 million number in the same period in 2013.

The final renewal rate from Q4 2013 also dipped. The renewal rate was 72.2 percent compared with 72.9 percent Q4 2012.

I suspect the firm will blame changes in monetization on its conference call this afternoon. A bigger question going forward is if fresh top level domain names can siphon off some of those 8.6 million quarterly registration.