Tucows Inc. is an American-Canadian
publicly traded
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (list ...
Internet services and telecommunications company headquartered in
Toronto, Ontario
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, and incorporated in
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. The company is composed of three independent businesses: Tucows Domains,
Ting Internet, and
Wavelo.
Originally founded in 1993 as a
shareware
Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...
and
freeware
Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the f ...
software download site, Tucows shuttered its downloads business in 2021. Tucows Domains is the second-largest
domain registrar
A domain name registrar is a company that manages the reservation of Internet domain names. A domain name registrar must be accredited by a generic top-level domain (gTLD) registry or a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registry. A registrar ...
worldwide and operates OpenSRS, Ascio, and
Hover.
In 2012, Tucows launched
Ting Mobile
Ting Mobile is an American mobile virtual network operator owned by Dish Wireless. Originally established in February 2012 by Tucows, Ting provides cellular service in the United States using the T-Mobile network, while some grandfathered accoun ...
, a
wireless service provider
A mobile network operator (MNO), also known as a wireless service provider, wireless carrier, cellular company, or mobile network carrier, is a provider of wireless communications services that owns or controls all the elements necessary to sell ...
and used the same brand to launch its
fiber
Fiber or fibre (from la, fibra, links=no) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorporate ...
Internet provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
business.
Ting Internet in 2015. In 2020, Tucows sold its wireless business to
Dish Network
DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...
, while they continued to operate Ting Internet. The billing platform Tucows built for Ting Mobile was
spun off into an independent
OSS/BSS OSS/BSS, in telecommunications, refer to operations support system and business support system. The distinction emphasizes a separation of concerns between maintaining network ''operations'' and the ''business'' around which that network is built. ...
SaaS business, Wavelo.
The company was formed in
Flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, in 1993. The Tucows logo was two
cow
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...
heads, a play on the
homophone
A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...
"two cows".
Origins
Scott Swedorski
Scott Swedorski is the founder of Tucows (The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software), a large Internet domain name reseller, and Internet service provider.
History
Scott served in the military and then received an associate degree from Mott Co ...
, a Flint native, started working as a computer lab manager at Flint's
Mott Community College
Mott Community College (officially Charles Stewart Mott Community College or abbreviated MCC) is a public community college in Flint, Michigan. It is named for politician, businessman, and philanthropist Charles Stewart Mott. Its district is t ...
in 1991. By late 1992, Swedorski left Mott College to work at the Genesee County Library System as a system administrator for FALCON (Flint Area Library Cooperative Online Network) and saw a need to bring shareware reviews to the public. In 1993 he formed TUCOWS (The Ultimate Collection Of
Winsock
In computing, the Windows Sockets API (WSA), later shortened to Winsock, is an application programming interface (API) that defines how Windows network application software should access network services, especially TCP/IP. It defines a standar ...
Software
[Al Harberg]
DP Director. "TUCOWS' founder and president Scott Swedorski announced earlier this week that he has resigned from TUCOWS"
November 30, 2003.) leading all editorial, reviews, HTML programming and scripting.
Company history
In the early 1990s, Tucows was hosted on university and public servers (much like Yahoo! and Google were in their early stages). TUCOWS' mission was to provide users with downloads of both
freeware
Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the f ...
and trial versions of
shareware
Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...
. Internet Direct, owned and operated by John Nemanic, Bill Campbell, and Colin Campbell, acquired Tucows in 1996.
[ STI Ventures acquired Tucows in 1999.][
The company employed roughly 30 employees in ]Flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...
, Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
, in 1998 with additional employees in Canada. For several years Scott Swedorski
Scott Swedorski is the founder of Tucows (The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software), a large Internet domain name reseller, and Internet service provider.
History
Scott served in the military and then received an associate degree from Mott Co ...
personally oversaw day-to-day activity in the Flint office located in the White House building on Beecher Road.
In 2000, Tucows acquired ''Linux Weekly News'' (which was then "unacquired" in 2002).
In 2001, Tucows was acquired by Infonautics
Infonautics was an information services company, founded in 1992 by Marvin Weinberger, Lawrence Husick, and Josh Kopelman, and had its headquarters in Wayne, Pennsylvania, United States. It was a spin-out from Telebase, Inc., which retained a mino ...
, which then changed its name to Tucows,[Paula J. Hane]
"Tucows Sells Two Former Infonautics Services"
''Information Today'', August 26, 2002. a business tactic called a "reverse takeover
A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compan ...
". On August 26, 2002, Tucows sold eLibrary and Encyclopedia.com, its search and reference services properties inherited from Infonautics, to Alacritude.[
]Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
preserves a full copy of the Tucows Software Library, with thousands of software titles both in the latest versions, as well as in older versions not yet available through Tucows.
In 2004, Tucows acquired Boardtown Corporation, a billing software provider based in Starkville, Mississippi
Starkville is a city in, and the county seat of, Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, United States. Mississippi State University is a land-grant institution and is located partially in Starkville but primarily in an adjacent unincorporated area desig ...
.
On August 19, 2005, Tucows went public,after completing a secondary offering, listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange
The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; french: Bourse de Toronto) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in t ...
as TSX and the NASDAQ
The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
as TC.
In January 2006, Tucows completed its acquisition of certain assets of Critical Path, an outsourced email services provider.
In June 2006 Tucows paid $18 million to purchase Mailbank.com Inc, a company that owns over 17,000 domain names for common surnames, such as smith.net and brown.org. Mailbank generates income from ads on its websites (from domain parking
Domain parking is the registration of an Internet domain name without that domain being associated with any services such as e-mail or a website. This may have been done with a view to reserving the domain name for future development, and to prot ...
) and also from customers who want e-mail accounts with their surname in the domain name.
On June 15, 2006, Noss disclosed that the portfolio of NetIdentity's domain names acquired by Tucows represents at least 68% of surnames in the United States and Europe, and that the cost of the acquisition was $18 million.["Tucows Podcast on Its NetIdentity Acquisition - Transcript"]
''Seeking Alpha
Seeking Alpha is a crowd-sourced content service for financial markets. Articles and research covers a broad range of stocks, asset classes, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and investment strategies. Unlike other equity research platforms, insight ...
'', June 15, 2006. On February 19, 2008, Tucows announced that they were launching a "Personal Names Service" using their portfolio of 39,000 domain names.[ "The launch of the Personal Names Service marks the complete integration of the surname assets we acquired with NetIdentity into our wholesale channel", said Elliot Noss, President and CEO of Tucows.]["Tucows Launches Personal Names Service"]
Tucows Press Release, February 19, 2008.
On August 26, 2006, Tucows won an eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
auction for the web calendar site Kiko.com. The company planned to roll Kiko's features into their existing email platform.
On July 27, 2007, Tucows acquired ItsYourDomain.com (IYD), another privately held ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...
-accredited wholesale registrar offering domain services through a network of over 2,500 affiliates with over 700,000 domains under management, paying US$10.35 million.[Jay Westerdal]
"ItsYourDomain acquired by Tucows"
Domain Tools, July 30, 2007 ItsYourDomain.com managed 699,951 domains compared to Tucows's 5,919,987, at the time of the sale in July 2007 ItsYourDomain.com's monthly growth of 29,181 exceeded Tucows growth of 21,126.[Registrar Stats. "Registrar Market Share" April 2017.]
/ref>
By June 2008, Tucows had a total of three domain name registration services called ItsYourDomain (IYD), NetIdentity, and DomainDirect. Tucows decided to discontinue these three services, and merge them into one new domain name registration service, called Hover. Hover is a simple domain name registration service powered by Tucows Inc, that started in July 2008. All IYD, DomainDirect, and NetIdentity customers are fulfilled by Hover.com.
On November 6, 2008, Tucows announced that they were launching Butterscotch.com, an online video network with video tutorials to explain Internet technology, starting with 35 video tutorials and plans to reach 500 clips by Spring 2009.[ "Tucows Sweetens Technology Learning with Butterscotch.com"]
Canadian PR Newswire, November 6, 2008. On October 14, 2011, Butterscotch.com producer Sean Carruthers stated production had been shut down.
In December 2014, Tucows launched RealNames, offering e-mail service using domain names acquired from Mailbank.com Inc.
On January 20, 2017, the company acquired eNom
Enom, Inc. is a domain name registrar and Web hosting company that also sells other products closely tied to domain names, such as SSL certificates, e-mail services, and Website building software. As of May 2016, it manages over 15 million domain ...
for $83.5 million, making Tucows the second-largest domain registrar in the world.
The company announced in January 2021 it was shuttering its Downloads business, as it was no longer essential to the rest of the company's business, but had transferred all of its assets and content to the Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
prior to its closure.
Business lines
In July 2008, Tucows rebranded
Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...
its wholesale services as "Open SRS".[ "Re-introducing OpenSRS"]
Open SRS Reseller Blog, July 28, 2008.
As of March 2019, Tucows is the second-largest accredited registrar in the world.
Domain portfolio management
Tucows has three sources of income from its domain portfolio: 1) Advertising from pages of domains within their domain name portfolio;[ 2) Sales of domains from their portfolio, which is constantly being replenished;]
PRNewswire-FirstCall, June 19, 2007. 3) Auction of the steady stream of thousands of domain names that expire every day and become available for resale.[
On November 14, 2007, Tucows disclosed that they offer ]pay-per-click
Pay-per-click (PPC) is an internet advertising model used to drive traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays a publisher (typically a search engine, website owner, or a network of websites) when the ad is clicked.
Pay-per-click is usually ...
advertising on the pages of domains within their domain name portfolio.[ When a user types one of these domain names into the address of the browser (direct navigation), they are presented with dynamically generated links which are pay-per-click advertising.][ Every time a user clicks on one of the links listed on a web page, it generates revenue for Tucows through its partnership with third parties who provide syndicated pay-per-click results.][SEC Filings for TCX. "Form 10-Q for TUCOWS INC /PA/"]
November 14, 2007.
On February 7, 2008, Tucows disclosed that it had switched from Google Ads
Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users. It can place ads both in the result ...
to a new advertising partner in 2007, which led to a one-third increase in its revenue.["Tucows Inc. Q4 2007 Earnings Call Transcript"]
''Seeking Alpha'', February 7, 2008.
On May 7, 2008, Tucows announced it put a process in place for the regular sale of direct navigation names.[ "Tucows Inc. Q1 2008 Earnings Call Transcript"]
''Seeking Alpha'', May 7, 2008. These domain names would come from names that expire each month from customers who decide they no longer want the domain names and that Tucows is able to select the ones they want to keep from these domain names.["RBC Capital Markets Growth Conference"]
Tucows Presentation, October 27, 2008.
Tucows announced on June 12, 2008, that they have reached an agreement with Afternic to auction Tucows’ large daily inventory of expired domain names.[ "We have over eight million domains under management and thousands expiring every day, so this deal provides us with a great way to share revenue with our resellers while participating in Afternic’s popular secondary domain name marketplace”, said Bill Sweetman, General Manager of Tucows Domain Portfolio.][ "Tucows Collaborates With Namemedia’s Afternic.Com To Auction Daily Inventory Of Expired Domain Names"]
Tucows Press Release, June 12, 2008. Tucows will share 10% of the gross sale price with the reseller for the sale of expired domains that were originally registered through the reseller.[ Revenue will be shared automatically without the reseller having to take any additional action.][ "Tucows and Afternic.com Team Up for Expired Domain Auction"]
Tucows Corporate blog, June 12, 2008. Tucows chose Afternic as a partner even though SnapNames with Register.com and NameJet with NetSol/eNom are the dominant players in expired domains.[ "Tucows and Afternic Deal Q&A"]
Domain Name Wire, June 12, 2008.
On October 29, 2008, Tucows announced that it would begin direct sales from their inventory of premium domain names under the brand name of Yummy Names. The service was created especially for marketers to obtain a high-quality domain name from Tucows inventory.[ Customers have the option of purchasing a premium domain name outright or leasing the name.][ In 2009 one of Tucows' subsidiaries, Buydomains Holdings, sold another premium ]domain name
A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...
for a record $50,000 for Myhomepage.com.
On February 20, 2008, Tucows announced a portfolio of over 1,000 domain names
A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...
that have the high potential value such as "Jewellers.com", "Actresses.com", "BasketballPlayers.com", and "ProjectManagers.com".["Tucows Reveals Key Domain Name Portfolio Assets", Tucows Press Release, February 20, 2008.]
/ref>
In February 2008, Tucows successfully defended against an arbitration proceeding over Batchelor.com, which it had acquired as part of its NetIdentity purchase. The complaint had been filed by Ken Batchelor Cadillac Company, a car dealership
A car dealership, or car dealer, is a business that sells new or used cars, at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or its sales subsidiary. Car dealerships also often sell spare parts and automotive maintena ...
. A National Arbitration Forum
Forum, formerly known as the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) is an American organization that provides arbitration and mediation services to businesses, based at its Minneapolis headquarters and offices in New Jersey. The organization was founde ...
panel determined that the dealership had not established rights in the mark "Batchelor". In fact, Tucows has won all surname-related arbitration proceedings.
In 2007, Weidner Investment Services filed a complaint claiming that Weidner was its trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...
or service mark
A service mark or servicemark is a trademark used in the United States and several other countries to identify a service rather than a product.
When a service mark is federally registered, the standard registration symbol ® or "Reg U.S. ...
and asked the National Arbitration Forum
Forum, formerly known as the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) is an American organization that provides arbitration and mediation services to businesses, based at its Minneapolis headquarters and offices in New Jersey. The organization was founde ...
to order the transfer of Weidner.com from Tucows to Weidner.[ Tucows failed to respond, and the National Arbitration Forum ordered Tucows to transfer Weidner.com to Weidner Investment Services.]["''Weidner Investment Services, Inc. v. Tucows.com Co.''" Claim Number: FA0709001080246]
National Arbitration Forum, November 7, 2007.
In January 2017, eNom
Enom, Inc. is a domain name registrar and Web hosting company that also sells other products closely tied to domain names, such as SSL certificates, e-mail services, and Website building software. As of May 2016, it manages over 15 million domain ...
was sold to Canadian domain seller Tucows for $83.5M Canadian.
Email services
Tucows provides millions of email boxes through their network of over 9,000 service providers.[ "Tucows Announces Enhancement to the Tucows Email Service"]
Tucows Press Release, January 31, 2008. Customers of Tucows fully hosted email service are provided with POP3, IMAP, WAP and webmail access.[ Providers using Tucows Email Service have the option of using Tucows' spam and virus filtering with their current email infrastructure.][
As part of the NetIdentity acquisition, Tucows had problems migrating retail customers' email from a third-party provider to Tucows in-house mail systems in September 2006.][Joel Shore]
"System migration may be the most dangerous thing you ever do"
''IT World'', September 26, 2006.
Starting August 12, 2008, Tucows Email Service running on their servers designated as Cluster A experienced a multi-day outage lasting until August 15, 2008. On October 6, 2008, Cluster A again suffered another multi-day outage affecting at least 50% of users and at times all users. As of the afternoon of October 9, 2008, this cluster was still partially down ("degraded") preventing an unknown number of users from being able to retrieve email.
Retail services
Tucows sells services to consumers and small businesses and offers personalized email through net identity.[ Tucows also offers customers hosting and other services with NetIdentity. Tucows also expected to receive income for ]pay per click
Pay-per-click (PPC) is an internet advertising model used to drive traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays a publisher (typically a search engine, website owner, or a network of websites) when the ad is clicked.
Pay-per-click is usually ...
advertising revenue from domain parking
Domain parking is the registration of an Internet domain name without that domain being associated with any services such as e-mail or a website. This may have been done with a view to reserving the domain name for future development, and to prot ...
the surnames.[
]
Mobile phone services
In February 2012, Tucows launched a new mobile virtual network operator
A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobil ...
in the United States known as Ting
Ting may refer to:
Politics and government
* Thing (assembly) or ting, a historical Scandinavian governing assembly
* Ting (administrative unit) (亭), an administrative unit in China during the Qin and Han Dynasties
* Ting (廳,厅), an administr ...
, which resells voice and data services on the T-Mobile US
T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas and Bellevue, Washington, U.S. Its largest shareholder is a multinational telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG, which , holds 48.4 perc ...
network. As of July 2018, the service had approximately 286,000 subscribers.
In 2017, Tucows acquired Canadian MVNO
A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobile ...
Roam Mobility from Otono Networks. Roam Mobility ran for three years until it was shut down in June 2020, likely due to travel slowdown from the COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
pandemic.
On August 3, 2020, Tucows announced that it would sell the Ting Mobile business to Dish Network
DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...
(owner of Boost Mobile Boost Mobile may refer to:
* Boost Mobile (Australia), an Australian mobile virtual network operator
* Boost Mobile (United States), an American mobile virtual network operator owned by Dish Wireless
* Spark New Zealand
Spark New Zealand Limit ...
) and serve as its provider of backend services for its new wireless businesses.
As of 2022, Tucows no longer runs its mobile phone service and has shifted focus to software enablement for other providers.
Internet services
On December 15, 2014, Tucows announced its acquisition of the Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...
ISP Blue Ridge InternetWorks, which was building a fiber to the home
Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber opt ...
network. The services were brought under Tucows' Ting branding. They began offering symmetrical gigabit fiber internet without bandwidth caps. Since expanding the existing fiber network in Charlottesville, Ting Internet is currently in 12 markets wth more on the way.
Software (SaaS)
In January 2022, Tucows launched Wavelo, a software as a service
Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software.
SaaS is con ...
(SaaS) company that builds telecom billing and operations software for Mobile Virtual Network Operators
A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobile ...
and Fiber Internet Services. They have two products: MONOS (Mobile Network Operating System) currently used by Dish Network
DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...
and ISOS (Internet Services Operating System) currently used by Ting Internet.
De-emphasis and divestment of business lines
De-emphasis of software downloads
Tucows maintains a download archive that includes more than 30,000 software titles in its worldwide network of partner sites. Although some listing features now have fees, basic listing remains free. Tucows founder Scott Swedorski announced his resignation in November 2003.[ On March 10, 2006, Tucows Content division closed its satellite office located in ]Flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...
, Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
, and relocated the remaining editorial functions to its corporate head office in Toronto. On February 7, 2008, Tucows disclosed that Tucows plans to de-emphasize the software download aspect of their business.[ The download service was finally closed down in January 2021.
]
Divestment of web hosting accounts
On May 6, 2008, Tucows announced that they are getting out of the web hosting business.[ "Hostopia to acquire certain shared hosting customer assets of Tucows Retail Service Group"]
Tucows Press Release, May 6, 2008. As part of the divestment Tucows signed an agreement for Hostopia to purchase about 14,000 Domain Direct, NetIdentity and ItsYourDomain.com (IYD) customer web hosting accounts and would migrate the web hosting accounts to Hostopia's unified web service platform by July 2008.[
]
Divestment of equity interest in Afilias
On November 5, 2008, Tucows announced that it was selling its entire 7.38% equity interest in Afilias
Afilias, Inc. is a US corporation that is the registry operator of the .info, .mobi and .pro top-level domain, service provider for registry operators of .org, .ngo, .lgbt, .asia, .aero, and a provider of domain name registry services for countri ...
for $7.4 million. Afilias is the registry operator of the .info
The domain name info is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. The name is derived from ''information'', although registration requirements do not prescribe any particular purpose.
The TLD ''info'' wa ...
and .aero
.aero (derived from aeronautics) is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) used in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It is the first sponsored top-level domain based on a single industrial theme. The aero domain is reserved for companies, orga ...
TLDs, and the service provider of the .org
The domain name .org is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) of the Domain Name System (DNS) used on the Internet. The name is truncated from ''organization''. It was one of the original domains established in 1985, and has been operated by th ...
generic top-level domain
Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of eve ...
(gTLD), .mobi
The domain name mobi is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Its name is derived from the adjective ''mobile''.
The domain was approved by ICANN on 11 July 2005, and is managed by the mTLD global r ...
mobile phone TLD, and a provider of domain name registry services for several countries around the world, including .AG (Antigua and Barbuda), .BZ (Belize), .GI (Gibraltar), .HN (Honduras), .IN (India), .ME (Montenegro), .SC (the Seychelles), and .VC (St. Vincent and the Grenadines).
Reputation
Domain name add grace period (AGP) abuse
On January 8, 2008, Tucows explained its values and position on domain name front running
Domain name front running is the practice whereby a domain name registrar uses insider information to register domains for the purpose of re-selling them or earning revenue via ads placed on the domain's landing page. By registering the domains, t ...
: "We work to uphold the rights of Registrants. That means, for example, not putting 60-day locks on domains when a Registrant makes a change to their WHOIS
WHOIS (pronounced as the phrase "who is") is a query and response protocol that is widely used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block or an autonomou ...
information effectively locking some into a renewal and blocking domain name transfers to other Registrars. That also means having a clear, defined policy surrounding expiry and redemption periods."[ Tucows addresses ]domain tasting Domain tasting is the practice of temporarily registering a domain under the five-day Add Grace Period at the beginning of the registration of an ICANN-regulated second-level domain. During this period, a registration must be fully refunded by the ...
"by charging our Resellers a monetary fee on domain name registrations that are cancelled within the five-day Add Grace Period (AGP)", but it "doesn’t use WHOIS query data or search data from our API
An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standa ...
to front-run domain names".[James Koole]
"Registrar Reputation and Trust"
January 8, 2008.
Although it supports ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...
’s fee to discourage domain tasting Domain tasting is the practice of temporarily registering a domain under the five-day Add Grace Period at the beginning of the registration of an ICANN-regulated second-level domain. During this period, a registration must be fully refunded by the ...
and Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
's decision to drop names added and deleted during the AGP from its AdSense
Google AdSense is a program run by Google through which website publishers in the Google Network of content sites serve text, images, video, or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to the site content and audience. These advert ...
program, Tucows claimed that AGP abuse could be further curbed by shortening the AGP period to 12 hours or less, sufficient time for registrants to correct spelling mistakes—AGP's original purpose.[Adam Eisner]
"ICANN Proposed Tasting Fee a Good First Step"
Tucows Blog, January 30, 2008.
Registrations to sites selling illegal goods and connections to terrorism
In 2015, the U.S. Trade Representative included Tucows on its annual "notorious markets" list—the first time it has named a domain name registrar
A domain name registrar is a company that manages the reservation of Internet domain names. A domain name registrar must be accredited by a generic top-level domain (gTLD) registry or a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registry. A registrar ...
—in order to set an example for what happens to registrars that do not block or suspend sites that sell illegal goods. Tucows responded that it suspended dozens of sites every day, but that "unlike some competitors, it considered all complaints carefully to ensure they were justified".
Tucows used to be the domain name registrar for the notorious American imageboard
An imageboard is a type of Internet forum that focuses on the posting of images, often alongside text and discussion. The first imageboards were created in Japan as an extension of the textboard concept. These sites later inspired the creation of ...
8chan
8kun, previously called 8chan, Infinitechan or Infinitychan (stylized as ∞chan), is an imageboard website composed of user-created message boards. An owner moderates each board, with minimal interaction from site administration. The site ha ...
, which has been delisted by Google for hosting child pornography, and also seen numerous swatting attacks and terrorist attacks announced and planned by users, notably the 2019 New Zealand Terror Attack.
It is also a domain name registrar for the social media platform Truth Social
Truth Social (stylized as TRUTH Social) is a social media platform created by Trump Media & Technology Group, an American media and technology company founded in October 2021 by former U.S. president Donald Trump. It has been called a competitor ...
and the white nationalist website Stormfront.
in 2021, Tucows launched a framework to explain their role in dealing with domain name abuse.
Leadership
* Elliot Noss - President & Chief Executive Officer - Tucows and Ting Internet
* Dave Singh - Chief Financial Officer
* Bret Fausett - Chief Legal Officer
* Justin Reilly - chief executive officer - Wavelo
* David Woroch - chief executive officer - Tucows Domains
''Source:''
Board of Directors
*Robin Chase - chairperson of the Board of Directors
* Allen Karp, Q.C.
* Marlene Carl
* Erez Gissin
* Jeffery Schwartz
* Brad Burnham
* Elliot Noss
''Source:''
See also
* Domain name registrar
A domain name registrar is a company that manages the reservation of Internet domain names. A domain name registrar must be accredited by a generic top-level domain (gTLD) registry or a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registry. A registrar ...
* Hover (domain registrar)
Hover may refer to:
* Levitation, the process by which an object or person is suspended by a physical force against gravitation without solid physical contact
Computing
*Hover (domain registrar)
*''Mouse hover'' or mouseover, a gesture made with ...
References
External links
Tucows Corporate Website
{{authority control
Companies listed on the Nasdaq
Companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange
Companies formerly listed on NYSE American
Software companies of Canada
2005 initial public offerings
Software companies established in 1993
1993 establishments in Michigan
Companies based in Toronto