About Us

Tucows seeks to provide simple, useful services that help people unlock the power of the Internet. Our mission is to provide a web address and email address for every person and business.

Overview

We provide domain names, email and other services through our extensive reseller network and directly to consumers and small businesses through our retail and content groups.

OpenSRS, our Reseller Services group manages over eight million domain names, millions of mailboxes and hundreds of thousands of SSL certificates through a network of over 9,000 web hosts, ISPs (Internet Service Providers), and other resellers around the world.

Our Retail Services group offers these services to consumers and small businesses through our three consumer brands: Domain Direct, NetIdentity, and IYD.

Our Domain Portfolio Services group oversees the tens of thousands of domain names in our own Tucows domain name portfolio. Included in the Domain Portfolio are over 30,000 domains that are the basis of our Personal Names Service that allows over two-thirds of Americans to purchase a domain or email address based on their name. Most of of these domain names generate advertising revenue and many of of these names are offered for resale via our reseller network and other channels. YummyNames is the public face of our domain name portfolio. Created especially with marketers in mind, YummyNames allows people to search for and obtain the perfect domain name for their company or brand.

Additionally, our Content group generates advertising revenue through tucows.com, one of the oldest and most popular software download sites on the Internet.

Our Platypus group provides ISPs with an industry-specific solution to billing, service provisioning, and customer account management. Platypus includes an integrated help desk system that automatically routes, tracks and maintains customer support email and phone calls to improve service desk performance. Platypus is a Windows software solution ISPs install in-house.

Tucows Inc. was incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in November 1992 under the name Infonautics, Inc. In August 2001, we completed our acquisition of Tucows Inc., a Delaware corporation, and we changed our name from Infonautics, Inc. to Tucows Inc. Our headquarters are in Toronto. We have offices in Europe and the United States.

We were among the first group of thirty-four registrars to be accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in 1999 and we remain active in Internet governance issues.

Our Purpose and Values

We seek to provide simple, useful services that help people unlock the power of the Internet.

To achieve this purpose we hold the following core values:

  • The Internet is the greatest agent for positive change the world has ever seen.
  • People find the Internet complex and confusing so we work to make things simple and reliable.
  • Innovation and creativity are found in every employee, customer and partner we have.
  • We know "we beats me" any day.

Our Culture

These principles guide our everyday actions: to work as a team; to exceed the expectations of our customers; and to deliver the highest quality standards in every aspect of our business. We know people count most. And we have great people. A mix of people with different skill sets, different work experiences, from all over the world and right next-door. Our success is the sum of our efforts.

Core Competencies

1. Web Hosts and ISPs as a Reseller Channel

Our reseller network has grown to include more than 9,000 web-hosting companies, ISPs and other service providers in more than 100 countries. We estimate that this channel offers us access to more than 50-million end-users worldwide. Serving the needs of this network of resellers is our company's primary focus and accounts for the majority of our revenue.

Our business practices, technical support, range of services and management tools demonstrate our commitment to our resellers.

2. Reseller-Friendly Approach

We seek to provide superior customer service to our resellers by anticipating their business needs and technical requirements. This includes providing easy-to-use interfaces to our services so that resellers can integrate them into their business processes quickly as well as offering brandable end-user interfaces that emphasize simplicity and visual appeal. We also offer extensive technical documentation and knowledgebases that allow resellers to help themselves. Should issues arise, we provide "second tier" support to our resellers (not to their end-users) by email, phone, and through our web site.

Our Reseller Support team consists of trained technicians able to provide assistance in many languages. Reseller Support handles general inquiries, investigates order and payment status, and answers technical questions about our services. They are encouraged to draw on expertise throughout the organization to help them help our resellers.

Our Network Operating Center provides proactive support by monitoring all services and network infrastructure to eliminate issues before they come to our resellers' attention. They also act as an escalation point for complex technical issues Reseller Support cannot resolve.

The power of open conversation with our resellers should not be underestimated. We provide publicly accessible blogs and forums which increase the level of scrutiny we face and raise the standards to which we are held. We believe that this, in turn, produces credibility and loyalty within our reseller channel. Furthermore, problems that are raised in these forums are often solved by other resellers who have faced similar situations. This greatly increases the speed and breadth of responses the reseller is able to receive in a cost-effective manner.

3. Reseller-oriented Technology

We believe the underlying platforms for our services are the most mature, reliable and functional reseller-oriented provisioning and management platforms in the business. We continue to refine and evolve these services to make them better for both resellers and end-users.

4. Agile Design and Development Processes

The company organizes its product management, technical development, and operational teams using "scrum" and other agile development techniques that emphasize team-based, collaborative, and iterative approaches to product development and operation.

Agile processes greatly increase our ability to get new ideas to market while limiting the chances of creating services and features that are not of interest to resellers and end-users. Such processes also increase productivity by empowering small groups of developers to have a great amount of control over their projects with minimal need for oversight and top-down control.

Read more about our business on our latest form 10-K.