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Our History
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Tucows began as a start-up software distribution company and has grown to become a leading provider of a suite of wholesale internet services and back office solutions to service providers. The company has reinvented itself more than once, proving the strength of its business model, leadership and ability to create and retain business relationships with service providers worldwide.
1993 -- Tucows launches its content business in Flint, Michigan
- Tucows began in Flint, Michigan in 1993. While working for local libraries, Scott Swedorski noticed the public's increasing interest in the World Wide Web and used his personal website to offer downloadable software. He dubbed this service TUCOWS -- an acronym for The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software -- which quickly gained recognition as the first site to offer software on a "freeware" or "shareware" basis.
1994 -- ISPs around the world begin to 'mirror' Tucows' libraries
- Internet service providers (ISPs) and other partner sites around the work began 'mirroring' Tucows' software libraries to provide fast, local downloads to their end-users and save on bandwidth costs.
1995 -- Tucows acquired by Toronto-based ISP Internet Direct
- In 1995, Tucows was acquired by Internet Direct, an ISP based in Toronto, Canada, and one of the first Tucows mirror sites.
1999 -- Tucows accredited by ICANN as a domain name registrar
- When the domain name registration monopoly was opened to competition in 1999, Tucows used the opportunity to leverage its experience and relationships with internet service providers. The company received its registrar accreditation from ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) in April 1999.
2000 -- Tucows creates the wholesale registration business and launches OpenSRS
- Tucows began accepting registrations from ISPs and web hosting companies through the OpenSRS platform in January 2000. At first, registrations were available under .com, .net and .org. In the fall of that year, Tucows added .uk and .ca. Since 2000, Tucows has continued to add new top-level domains including the gTLDs .info, .biz, and .name, and the ccTLDs .us (United States), .cn (China), and .de (Germany).
2001 -- Tucows provides back end registry services for Afilias and merges with Infonautics, Inc.
- In May 2001, Tucows launched the first EPP-based global registry management service -- Liberty Registry Management Services (LibertyRMS) for generic top-level domains (gTLDs) including .info. LibertyRMS had an exclusive two-year contract with Afilias to provide the registry operations for the new generic top-level domain .info. Tucows has since sold LibertyRMS to Afilias.
- On August 28, 2001, Tucows merged with Infonautics, Inc. (Nasdaq: INFO), an internet information services company and provider of online information sites. On completion of the merger, Infonautics changed its name to Tucows Inc. Tucows Inc. continues to be quoted on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board under the symbol "TCOW."
2002 -- Tucows begins sale of GeoTrust digital certificates and offers outsourced registration infrastructure for accredited registrars
- In July 2002, Tucows began offering GeoTrust Inc.'s suite of digital security products and services to its reseller channel.
- In August 2002, Tucows announced the general availability of its hosted registrar services platform (OpenHRS), an outsourced registration solution for ICANN- accredited registrars.
- The search and reference media sites eLibrary and Encyclopedia.com, were sold to Alacritude, LLC in August 2002.
2003 - Tucows continues to expand its suite of wholesale internet services
- In February 2003, Tucows began offering email services to and for distribution by service providers.
- In December 2003, Managed DNS was added to the wholesale service line.
2004 -- Tucows adds back office solutions to enable service providers to rapidly adopt new value added services
- In March 2004, Tucows reached 4 million domain names under management.
- In April 2004, Tucows announced the general availability of Email Defense, a comprehensive wholesale service that includes anti-spam functionality.
- In April 2004, Tucows acquired Boardtown Corporation, the producers of the Platypus Billing System for internet service providers.
- In May 2004, Tucows launched Blogware, the first wholesale weblogging service for ISPs and webhosting providers.
- In June 2004, Tucows announced the general availability of the Platypus Billing Service v5.0 and Wombat Help Desk v2.0.
- In June 2004, Tucows' suite of web publishing tools was expanded to include Tucows Website Builder.
2005 -- Tucows continues pattern of steady growth
- In August 2005, Tucows shares began trading on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX:TCX) and on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:TC).
2006 -- Tucows completes acquisition of Critical Path’s Hosted Messaging Business
- In January 2006, Tucows completed the acquisition of Critical Path’s Hosted Messaging Business. With this acquisition the company became a leading provider of hosted email related services, providing services to millions of mailboxes.
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