The Registrars Who Set the Price VeriSign CannotNarrow moat
VeriSign (VRSN) — moat facet
VeriSign takes $10.26 and is legally barred from finding out what the customer actually paid.
VeriSign gets $10.26. The registrar decides what the customer pays, and it is usually a good deal more.
Retail .com pricing runs from a promotional dollar in the first year to well over twenty dollars a year at full list, and the registrar keeps the difference plus everything it can attach: privacy protection, email, hosting, SSL certificates, website builders. VeriSign's own registry agreement states plainly that retail pricing for these registrations is established by registrars.1
This is not a negotiating failure. It is a legal requirement. The vertical-integration restrictions in the .com Registry Agreement apply solely to .com and prevent VeriSign from selling registrations directly, and the agreement further requires it to give all ICANN-accredited registrars non-discriminatory access to its systems and limits how it may market and bundle. A company running the largest registry in the world is prohibited from meeting its end customers.
The trade is favourable in one specific way and unfavourable in another. Favourably: VeriSign has no customer acquisition cost, no support obligation, no billing infrastructure and no churn management, which is why 928 people can run the whole thing.2 Unfavourably: it participates in none of the growth in what a domain is worth. When the value of being findable rises, the registrar captures it.
The measure of the trade is the gap between wholesale and retail, and it has widened as registrars have built more onto the domain. VeriSign's share of the end price is smaller every year even as its own price rises.
The gap between VeriSign's $10.26 and what a registrant actually pays keeps widening as registrars build more onto the domain — privacy, email, hosting, certificates. VeriSign's share of the end price falls every year even as its own price rises.
Retail .com pricing runs from a promotional dollar in the first year to well over twenty at list, and the registrar keeps the difference plus privacy, email, hosting and certificates. The .com agreement states that retail pricing is established by registrars and the vertical-integration restrictions bar VeriSign from selling direct. Watch the gap: it widens every year as registrars build more onto the domain.
Source: VeriSign Form 10-K, FY2025 ↗- ReportedRetail pricing for .com and .net registrations is established by registrars; VeriSign must provide ICANN-accredited registrars with non-discriminatory access, faces marketing and bundling limits, and is barred by vertical-integration restrictions from selling .com registrations directly.VeriSign, Inc., Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2025 (SEC, CIK 1014473) — Item 1, Business. VeriSign operates the .com and .net registries under registry agreements with ICANN, and .com additionally under a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce (most recently amended by Amendment 35 on 26 October 2018, automatically renewed on the same terms on 30 November 2024 for a successive six-year term, renewing again on 30 November 2030 unless the DOC gives notice). The .com Registry Agreement runs a six-year term that must be renewed or extended by 30 November 2030 and contains a presumptive right of renewal, with ICANN able to terminate or refuse in certain prescribed circumstances; it permits an increase to the Maximum Price of up to 7% over the previous year in each of the final four years of each six-year period, the current period having begun on 26 October 2024. The .net Registry Agreement was renewed on 29 June 2023, runs to 1 July 2029 and permits increases of up to 10% each year. VeriSign remits $0.2575 to ICANN quarterly for each annual .com registration and $0.25 for each .name registration. It also operates .cc under an agreement with the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, operates .name and internationalised gTLDs, provides back-end services for .edu, performs the Root Zone Maintainer function for ICANN and operates two of the thirteen global internet root servers. Retail pricing is established by registrars; VeriSign must provide ICANN-accredited registrars with non-discriminatory access, faces marketing and bundling limits, must submit new Registry Services for ICANN review, and is subject to vertical-integration restrictions that apply solely to .com — obligations it states do not apply to ccTLDs and other gTLDs and may create a competitive disadvantage. Named registry competitors include CentralNic, China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), DENIC eG, GoDaddy, Google, Identity Digital, Nominet, Public Interest Registry, Radix and .xyz. Employee headcount 928 (256 cost of revenues, 240 research and development, 432 selling, general and administrative). — FY2025 · publ. 2026-02-05 · source ↗
- ReportedVeriSign employed 928 people at the end of 2025.VeriSign, Inc., Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2025 (SEC, CIK 1014473) — Item 1, Business. VeriSign operates the .com and .net registries under registry agreements with ICANN, and .com additionally under a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce (most recently amended by Amendment 35 on 26 October 2018, automatically renewed on the same terms on 30 November 2024 for a successive six-year term, renewing again on 30 November 2030 unless the DOC gives notice). The .com Registry Agreement runs a six-year term that must be renewed or extended by 30 November 2030 and contains a presumptive right of renewal, with ICANN able to terminate or refuse in certain prescribed circumstances; it permits an increase to the Maximum Price of up to 7% over the previous year in each of the final four years of each six-year period, the current period having begun on 26 October 2024. The .net Registry Agreement was renewed on 29 June 2023, runs to 1 July 2029 and permits increases of up to 10% each year. VeriSign remits $0.2575 to ICANN quarterly for each annual .com registration and $0.25 for each .name registration. It also operates .cc under an agreement with the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, operates .name and internationalised gTLDs, provides back-end services for .edu, performs the Root Zone Maintainer function for ICANN and operates two of the thirteen global internet root servers. Retail pricing is established by registrars; VeriSign must provide ICANN-accredited registrars with non-discriminatory access, faces marketing and bundling limits, must submit new Registry Services for ICANN review, and is subject to vertical-integration restrictions that apply solely to .com — obligations it states do not apply to ccTLDs and other gTLDs and may create a competitive disadvantage. Named registry competitors include CentralNic, China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), DENIC eG, GoDaddy, Google, Identity Digital, Nominet, Public Interest Registry, Radix and .xyz. Employee headcount 928 (256 cost of revenues, 240 research and development, 432 selling, general and administrative). — FY2025 · publ. 2026-02-05 · source ↗