Jump to content

Tucows: Difference between revisions

From ICANNWiki
I changed all instances of "Tucows" to "TUCOWS" to match the title
m moved TUCOWS to Tucows: after coming across the company in another article and google-ing it I realized this is mislabeled as is
(No difference)

Revision as of 17:54, 19 January 2011

File:Tucows.gif
Type: Public
Industry: Internet, Registrar
Founded: Flint, Michigan (1993)
Founder(s): Scott Swedorski
Headquarters: Tucows, Inc.

96 Mowat Avenue,
Toronto, ON M6K 3M1,
Canada.

Employees: ~200 (2010)
Website: http://www.tucowsinc.com/
Key People
Elliot Noss, President and Chief Executive Officer

Michael Cooperman, Chief Financial Officer
Carla Goertz, Vice President, Human Resources
David Woroch, Vice President, Sales
Ken Schafer, Vice President, Marketing and Product Management


TUCOWS, a acronym for The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software, is best known for its popular website directory of shareware, freeware, and demo software packages available for download.

History[edit | edit source]

  • 1993 TUCOWS began in Flint, Michigan. It was originally started by Scott Swedorski as a website to offer software on a freeware or shareware basis.
  • 1995 TUCOWS is aquired by Toronto based ISP Internet Direct.[1]
  • 1999 TUCOWS is accredited by ICANN as a domain name registrar.
  • 2000 TUCOWS launched an OpenSRS platform and began accepting domain name registrations from ISPs and web hosting companies.[2]
  • 2001 TUCOWS merges with Infonautics, Inc., an internet information services company[3].
  • 2006 TUCOWS acquires NetIdentity. At that time NetIdentity owned 68 percent of all US and European surnames.[4]
  • 2007 TUCOWS acquires ItsYourDomain.com,, a privately held ICANN accredited wholesale registrar offering domain services through a network of over 2,500 affiliates with over 700,000 domains under management.[5]
  • 2008 TUCOWS launches Hover.com. Tucows discontinues ItsYourDomain.com, NetIdentity, and DomainDirect, merges them, and forms Hover.[6]
  • 2008 TUCOWS announces the launch of Butterscotch.com, an online video network with video tutorials to explain internet technology.[7]

Business[edit | edit source]

Apart from Tucows.com, TUCOWS also owns many other sites:

Products and Services offered by TUCOWS[edit | edit source]

According to their official website, TUCOWS provides domain names, email and other services through an extensive reseller network, called OpenSRS. They sell these services directly to consumers and small businesses through a retail group known as Hover.

OpenSRS manages over ten million domain names, millions of mailboxes for a network of over 10,000 web hosts, ISPs, and other resellers around the world.

YummyNames oversees the tens of thousands of domain names owned by TUCOWS. YummyNames offers domain name consulting services specifically designed for marketers, along with sales and leasing of premium domains from the TUCOWS portfolio through the YummyNames website.

Platypus Billing System is specifically designed for ISP, WISP and Web Hosting business.

Butterscotch.com is an online video network with video tutorials to explain internet technology.

References[edit | edit source]

External links[edit | edit source]