Short sellers were wrong: Verisign
Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) published a blog post this stretch stating that data shows short sellers were wrong regarding the impact AdSense for Domains (AFD) would have on .com registrations.
Google effectively shut down its AdSense for Domains program by the end of Q3 this year. It is having a significant impact on the domain industry as a whole.
On Verisign’s Q3 earnings call, an analyst asked regarding how this could impact .com registrations. The firm mostly demurred, stating that it wouldn’t be a big deal.
It might be right, but it withheld data it had regarding what percentage of .com domains are registered mostly for monetization purposes. This created an opening for short sellers, who pushed out a note suggesting it would have a significant impact on .com domains.
Verisign quickly issued a statement saying that its own calculations showed that 2% of its domain base (which was 171.9 million at the time) is parked for monetization.
Now, with Q4 drawing to a close, Verisign stated the data shows no meaningful change in .com deletions.
AdSense for Domains may take a slight edge off registration growth and add at least some deletions, but this is not isolated to .com. As I wrote this morning in an annual recap story, some fresh top level domains sold bulk registrations for monetization purposes, and they are feeling direct pain from AFD’s closure. It could also cause some registrars to raise prices if they relied on parked domain revenue for part of their profits.
But comparing the short sellers’ perspective to Verisign’s, it’s clear that Verisign’s is more in the ballpark.
