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Verisign’s crystal ball sees more growth for .com
Verisign has cranked up its growth predictions for .com for another consecutive quarter, partly driven by the availability of AI website creation tools.
Announcing its second-quarter financial results last week, the company said that it now expects its domain name count in .com and .net — in practice that usually means .com — to be between 5.2% and 6% for 2026.
That a sharp increase from the 3.1% and 4.3% range it had predicted just three months ago, and more than double the low-end growth in estimate in its February 1.5% to 3.5% forecast.
In Q2, it reported a “record” of 12.7 million new registrations, bringing the .com/.net total to 179.1 million. That compared to 11.5 million in Q1 and 10.4 million in Q2 last year. The net quarterly increase was 3.05 million.
Verisign described its now-confirmed 76.3% renewal rate for the first quarter as the highest it has seen in 20 years.
Explaining the growth, CEO Jim Bidzos said: “Registrars are focused on customer acquisition and are successfully engaged with our marketing programs. Additionally, AI tools are making content and website creation faster and easier.”
The company’s domain base had stagnated for a period whilst major registrars focused more on squeezing higher average revenue per customer rather than growth in domain volume.
Verisign reported net income of $217 million for the second quarter, up from $207 million a year earlier, on revenue that was up 6% at $435 million. A cash-printing machine, the company returned hundreds of millions of dollars back to its shareholders through buybacks and dividends.
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