Tucows
| Type: | Public |
| Industry: | Internet, Registrar |
| Founded: | Flint, Michigan (1993) |
| Founder(s): | Scott Swedorski |
| Headquarters: | Tucows, Inc. 96 Mowat Avenue, |
| Employees: | ~200 (2010) |
| Website: | http://www.tucowsinc.com/ |
| Key People | |
| Elliot Noss, President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Cooperman, Chief Financial Officer | |
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.
- 1999/April Tucows is accredited by ICANN as a domain name registrar.
- 2000/January Tucows launches OpenSRS platform and began accepting domain name registrations from ISPs and web hosting companies[2].
- 2001/August/28 Tucows merges with Infonautics, Inc., an Internet information services company[3].
- 2006/June/15 Tucows acquires NetIdentity. NetIdentity at that time owned 68 percent of all US and European surnames[4].
- 2007/July/27 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/July Tucows launches Hover.com. Tucows discontinues ItsYourDomain.com, NetIdentity, and DomainDirect and merges them and forms Hover[6].
- 2008/November/6 Tucows announces the launch of Butterscotch.com. Butterscotch.com is 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 which are listed below.
- http://www.opensrs.com/ : A platform for resellers.
- http://www.ispbilling.com/ : Platypus billing system for ISP, WISP and Web Hosting Business.
- http://www.butterscotch.com/ : An online video network with video tutorials to explain internet technology.
- http://www.yummynames.com/ : Domain name registration service.
- https://www.hover.com/ : Domain name registration service.
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 (Internet Service Providers), 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.