Emmit McHenry – The Man Responsible for the .com Phenomenon

Figure 1 – Emmit McHenry Portrait. Source – Google

A few decades ago, the internet was little more than a fantasy. As a result of the internet, we now have access to a vast array of digital resources at our fingertips, and we use them regularly. So, if you’ve ever wondered who came up with the idea for “.com,” you’re not alone. Let’s celebrate the “.com” phenomenon’s iconic figure, Emmit McHenry, in celebration of Black History Month. 

Emmitt McHenry was born in Forrest City, Arkansas in 1943 to a preacher’s grandson. To begin with, McHenry was born in Oklahoma and grew up there, graduating from Booker T. Washington High School and receiving a B.S. from the University of Denver in 1966 in communications. The Marine Corps was his next stop, and he quickly became a lieutenant.

Emmit McHenry and a few partners established Network Solutions, an engineering firm, in 1979. He and his colleagues struggled for 16 years to build a respectable corporation. According to Nairland.com, since they were unable to get funds from the banking institution, they mortgaged their residences and maxed up their credit cards. They were outstanding engineers and won several contracts, but the crown jewel inside Network Solutions was a contract with the National Science Foundation to develop the United States and the world’s first domain name addressing system for the Internet. This was back when the Internet was only a government experiment with little economic prospects.

McHenry created the computer code that enables us to access the internet and send emails today! His innovation is currently referred to as the “.com.” Because of McHenry’s success, the US government awarded Network Solutions an additional contract to continue creating an internet domain registry service as the exclusive domain name registrar for “.com,.net,.edu,.gov, and.org” domains. According to blackmail4u.com, Network Solutions was also given a $1 million/year contract to handle the central database of domain names, making them the only organization permitted to generate and issue website addresses. Because no one understood what the internet was at the time, they had no rivals for the contract, McHenry recognized he needed additional funding to build the firm as the internet started to take off. However, the National Science Foundation contract made growth difficult since they couldn’t raise their contract fees no matter how many additional domain names they registered.

Figure 2 – Creations of Emmit McHenry. Source – Google

McHenry’s financial difficulties reached a climax in 1995 when the company sold Network Solutions to Science Applications International Corp (SAIC) for $4.8 million. Within a few months, the government granted SAIC the authority to charge $70.00 per year for each domain name. In addition, the corporation got a royalty on any further domain names generated. This was the identical request made by McHenry to the government. According to ontechstreet.com, millions of individuals and businesses have requested domain names. As a consequence, a bidding war erupted for SAIC, which was flush with cash. VeriSign Inc. emerged as the major winner. SAIC transformed their $4.8 million acquisition of Network Solutions into a $21 billion bonanza in less than a year.

Emmit McHenry is the founder and CEO of NetCom Solutions International, Inc., a firm that provides telecommunications, engineering, consulting, and technical services. IBM, NASA, and Lucent Technologies have all given the firm recognition. It has $260 million in sales and over 200 workers in Chantilly, Virginia, and Oklahoma City.

Anand Subramanian is a freelance photographer and content writer based out of Tamil Nadu, India. Having a background in Engineering always made him curious about life on the other side of the spectrum. He leapt forward towards the Photography life and never looked back. Specializing in Documentary and  Portrait photography gave him an up-close and personal view into the complexities of human beings and those experiences helped him branch out from visual to words. Today he is mentoring passionate photographers and writing about the different dimensions of the art world.