GoDaddy
GoDaddy is a privately owned, Internet-based company that provides a variety of services including domain name registration, web hosting and e-business software sales. The company, which is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, was founded by Bob Parsons. Parsons previously owned a financial services software company, which he sold in the mid-1990s upon retirement. He came out of retirement in 1997 to form Jomax Technologies, the predecessor to GoDaddy.
Since it’s inception, GoDaddy has risen to become the largest domain registrar in the world, with tens of million of domains registered to its clients. The company ranks as the world’s largest ICANN-accredited registrar; it’s approximately four times larger than its nearest competition. Recent corporate acquisitions include Outright, Locu, Afternic, and Media Temple.
GoDaddy has redefined Internet hosting services, and it has been the recipient of numerous industry awards and accolades. Among these awards are the 2001 Arizona BBB award for Business Ethics and the 2011 SC Magazine award for Best Security Team. In 2011, it ranked number four in the Phoenix Business Magazine list of “Best Places to Work in the Valley” and it made the 2012 Forbes list of “Best 100 Companies to Work For.”
Known for its sometimes controversial commercials and interesting spokespersons, GoDaddy also sponsors a number of charitable causes in support of domestic violence and child abuse awareness, and sports events, including NASCAR and the Super Bowl. In 2013, the company shifted its advertising strategy to focus more on small to medium sized business owners (SMB). Reflecting this change, its commercials and advertising materials shifted from “sexy” to smart.
April 20, 2018
GoDaddy Auctions, NameJet, and DropCatch.com are domain name expiry auction platforms that primarily cater to domain investors. These platforms are all open to the public, but I would imagine the vast majority of participants are investors seeking to buy domain names at wholesale prices.
When a domain name expires, most domain registrars place an expiry notice on the top of the landing page to inform visitors of the expired status. The notices typically contain a link to the auction for the domain name should it not be renewed by the registrant in time. These notices can be helpful to companies who may wish to purchase a domain name at auction once it goes through the expiry cycle.
Josh Schoen recently noticed an end user company bought a domain name via GoDaddy Auctions. Via Twitter, Josh mentioned that a company called McHale Performance bought McHale.com at auction for $10,000 (confirmed via NameBio) in early April:
April 19, 2018
It looks like the F.org domain name has been sold by NameFind, the domain portfolio company owned by GoDaddy. I noticed the domain name changed registrants in my daily email from DomainTools. The new registrant of F.org is a company called Fincubator VC, a venture capital firm that invests in FinTech companies.
The website for F.org has already been launched and it is home to an entity called FinTech Labs. There seem to be multiple companies with a similar name to that, so having the F.org domain name should help them stand out.
In January of 2017, Jamie Zoch reported that GoDaddy sold (more…) → Read More
April 18, 2018
GoDaddy is looking to hire a Product Marketing Manager on its Domains team. I believe this particular line of business covers everything related to domain names, including registrations and the aftermarket.
Here's a brief job description from the LinkedIn listing, which was created a little over a week ago: (more…) → Read More
April 6, 2018
If you are a regular bidder on GoDaddy Auctions, you likely noticed a new design on individual domain auction landing pages. On each page, GoDaddy shares a variety of data about each domain name, including the following attributes:
- Age
- Type of auction
- Auction page visits
- Appraised value
- Parking statistics
When a GoDaddy-registered domain name expires, the company takes down whatever website existed and puts up an expiry notification landing page. The purpose is to notify the owner that the domain name expired and to let visitors know the domain name is coming up for auction. The company also monetizes landing pages with pay per click (PPC) links.
Of note, the company is now sharing "estimated monthly pageviews" and "estimated monthly revenue" for each expiry auction domain name. Paul Nicks, VP of the Aftermarket at GoDaddy told me the estimated monthly revenue takes into consideration the PPC revenue earned from parking in the 20 or so days the company has control of the domain name and that figure estimates
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March 30, 2018
GoDaddy CEO Scott Wagner (since January 1, 2018) made an appearance on CNBC yesterday to discuss data privacy. Most importantly, he spoke about what GoDaddy is doing to protect its client data. In the interview, Scott also spoke about GoDaddy's recent partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which was announced earlier this week and covered by TechCrunch.
One interesting tidbit is that Scott made it clear that this is a partnership between GoDaddy and Amazon rather than a vendor relationship. I am curious to see how Amazon will feature GoDaddy products within its own ecosystem.
The video interview is embedded below: (more…) → Read More
March 23, 2018
From my perspective, domain name appraisals are in high demand. I also believe GoDaddy is a relatively trusted company when it comes to the general public. Even if someone has not worked with GoDaddy before or knows very little about the publicly traded company, they likely know that GoDaddy is the largest domain name company in the world and there is a level of trust that comes with that recognition.
GoDaddy launched its domain appraisal tool last year called GoValue. The tool uses machine learning to give an automated domain name appraisal. It has a vast database of domain name sales, and anyone can use the tool to get an appraisal for their domain name at no cost.
Despite the fact that this new appraisal tool is a relatively recent entrant into the market, GoDaddy is already ranking quite well in Google. In fact, the tool ranks #1 for me in the following related searches: (more…) → Read More
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