A Hundred and Seventy-Nine Million Registrants Who Are Not CustomersNarrow moat
VeriSign (VRSN) — moat facet
179 million people own the product and VeriSign has never had a conversation with one of them.
There are about 179 million .com and .net registrations and VeriSign has a relationship with none of the people who own them.1
It does not know their names. It cannot email them, market to them, offer them anything, or ask them why they left. The registrar holds the account, the payment method, the support history and the renewal notice. VeriSign holds a database row.
This is the deliberate design of the system and it has two consequences that pull in opposite directions. The first is that VeriSign has no marketing costs and no churn management, which is a large part of why 32.3% of revenue covers every expense the company has.2 The second is that it is structurally blind. When the domain base fell for six consecutive quarters in 2023 and 2024, VeriSign could describe the causes — Chinese demand, registrar strategy, cheap alternatives — only through the aggregate figures and what its channel told it.3
It also means the renewal rate is the only voice the end customer has. There is no survey, no net promoter score, no account review. Once a year, 179 million people either pay or do not, and the resulting percentage — 76.3% in the first quarter of 2026 — is the entire feedback loop.4
For an investor the practical consequence is that VeriSign's disclosure is unusually thin on the demand side, and unusually reliable on the supply side. It knows exactly what it is owed. It knows very little about who owes it.
179 million registrants, no relationship with any of them, and no prospect of one while the vertical-integration restrictions stand. The blindness is designed in and has not changed.
Registrants reach VeriSign only through registrars; net additions are the one measure of whether they keep choosing .com.
Source: VeriSign, Inc. second-quarter 2026 results (Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1) ↗- ReportedThere were 179.1 million .com and .net registrations in the domain name base at 30 June 2026.VeriSign, Inc., Reports Second Quarter 2026 Results — Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, 23 July 2026. Revenue $435 million, up 6.0% year over year; operating income $296 million against $281 million; net income $217 million and diluted EPS $2.38 against $207 million and $2.21. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities $1.03 billion, up $454 million from year-end 2025; deferred revenues $1.45 billion at 30 June 2026, up $64 million from year-end. Cash flow from operations $232 million. On 26 June 2026 VeriSign issued $550 million of 5.10% Senior Notes due 2031 and on 20 July 2026 used the proceeds with cash on hand to redeem $550 million of 4.75% Senior Notes due 2027. 0.7 million shares repurchased for $197 million; an additional $884 million authorised effective 23 July 2026 bringing the total authorisation to $1.50 billion; a quarterly dividend of $0.81 per share declared on 20 July 2026. The domain name base ended at 179.1 million .com and .net registrations, a 5.1% increase year over year and a net increase of 3.05 million in the quarter; a record 12.7 million new registrations were processed against 10.4 million; the final first-quarter 2026 renewal rate was 76.3% against 75.5%. CEO Jim Bidzos: the record of 100% availability for the .com and .net domain name resolution system was extended to 29 years, and more than 100% of free cash flow was returned to the investing public through dividends and share repurchases. The .web top-level domain has been delegated into the DNS root zone with VeriSign as the designated registry operator. — Q2 2026 · publ. 2026-07-23 · source ↗
- ReportedTotal costs and expenses were 32.3% of revenue in 2025.VeriSign, Inc., Form 10-K FY2025 — Item 7, Management's Discussion and Analysis. Revenues $1,656.6M (+6%) against $1,557.4M in 2024 (+4%) and $1,493.1M in 2023; operating income $1,121.0M (+6%). Costs as a percentage of revenues: cost of revenues 11.8% (12.3%, 13.2%), research and development 6.3% (6.2%, 6.1%), selling, general and administrative 14.2% (13.6%, 13.7%), total costs and expenses 32.3% (32.1%, 33.0%), operating income 67.7% (67.9%, 67.0%), interest expense (4.6)%, net income 49.8% (50.4%, 54.8%). The .com and .net domain name base was 173.5 million at 31 December 2025 (+3%) against 169.0 million in 2024 (−2%) and 172.7 million in 2023. VeriSign processed 41.7 million new .com and .net registrations in 2025 against 37.4 million in 2024; the final third-quarter 2025 renewal rate was 75.4% against 72.2%. The registry-level wholesale fee rose from $9.59 to $10.26 for .com effective 1 September 2024 and from $9.92 to $10.91 for .net effective 1 February 2024. Geographic revenues: U.S. $1,093.1M (+6%), EMEA $279.4M (+12%), APAC $184.6M (+5%), other $99.5M (+3%). VeriSign repurchased 3.4 million shares for $858.6M in 2025, with $1.08 billion remaining under a programme authorised to $1.50 billion effective 24 July 2025. — FY2025 · publ. 2026-02-05 · source ↗
- ReportedThe domain name base fell for six consecutive quarters through the third quarter of 2024 on Chinese demand, registrar strategy and low-cost alternatives.Domain Name Wire — price increases boost revenue at Verisign as domain registrations continue to slide. The .com and .net base fell for a sixth consecutive quarter to 169.6 million at the end of the third quarter of 2024, down 2.5% year over year, with U.S. registrars prioritising revenue per customer over customer acquisition and very low-cost new gTLDs taking share; the third-quarter 2024 renewal rate was approximately 72.3%. — Q3 2024 · publ. 2024-10-25 · source ↗
- ReportedThe final .com and .net renewal rate for the first quarter of 2026 was 76.3%.VeriSign, Inc., Reports Second Quarter 2026 Results — Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, 23 July 2026. Revenue $435 million, up 6.0% year over year; operating income $296 million against $281 million; net income $217 million and diluted EPS $2.38 against $207 million and $2.21. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities $1.03 billion, up $454 million from year-end 2025; deferred revenues $1.45 billion at 30 June 2026, up $64 million from year-end. Cash flow from operations $232 million. On 26 June 2026 VeriSign issued $550 million of 5.10% Senior Notes due 2031 and on 20 July 2026 used the proceeds with cash on hand to redeem $550 million of 4.75% Senior Notes due 2027. 0.7 million shares repurchased for $197 million; an additional $884 million authorised effective 23 July 2026 bringing the total authorisation to $1.50 billion; a quarterly dividend of $0.81 per share declared on 20 July 2026. The domain name base ended at 179.1 million .com and .net registrations, a 5.1% increase year over year and a net increase of 3.05 million in the quarter; a record 12.7 million new registrations were processed against 10.4 million; the final first-quarter 2026 renewal rate was 76.3% against 75.5%. CEO Jim Bidzos: the record of 100% availability for the .com and .net domain name resolution system was extended to 29 years, and more than 100% of free cash flow was returned to the investing public through dividends and share repurchases. The .web top-level domain has been delegated into the DNS root zone with VeriSign as the designated registry operator. — Q2 2026 · publ. 2026-07-23 · source ↗