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.
GoDaddy’s recent launch of Afternic “Boost” has led to growing frustration over the commission fee charged for a successful domain name sale within the Afternic network. There is a way domain sellers can shift the burden for these commission payments from the seller to the buyer.
Tony alluded to this on X:
Testing some zero lander sales 🙂
5K sale pic.twitter.com/RuFyahjkNC
— Tony (@TonyNames) August 13, 2024
Yesterday, Afternic announced its new “Boost” feature. Afternic sellers are automatically opted into this program and must opt-out if they don’t wish to participate. The features and potential benefit of Afternic Boost were shared in a thread yesterday:
Introducing Boost, our new program that can contribute up to a 10% increase in sales performance for your portfolio* with:
🚀 Higher visibility at GoDaddy
👀 Boost badges to support conversions
📨 Email marketing to potential buyersLaunches September 4! https://t.co/l2t7NnWyzV
— Afternic (@afternic) August 7, 2024
My read on the news is the commission rate is reverting back to 20% for people using their nameservers in exchange for some features and enhancements.
There are few things more disconcerting than knowing someone is attempting to do something with one of my domain names without permission. That’s how I feel when I receive an unexpected email from GoDaddy with the subject, “Here’s your one-time-use support PIN.”
Someone (privately) on X mentioned this feeling when receiving this email, and I can relate. I receive these emails once or twice a year. From what I understand, these emails are generated when someone calls GoDaddy support about a particular domain name and can’t get access to the account / domain name management. GoDaddy will send a pin code to the email address on file. I have been told it’s generally people who call in and are mistaken about a domain name they think they own which I actually own. Perhaps they have a different extension or previously owned the domain name.
I’ve done quite a bit of business with Dan.com. In fact, I probably have more deal revenue on Dan.com than anywhere else other than private sales. The platform has been easy to use as a seller and as a buyer. The only real knock I’ve ever had with Dan.com is their brand wasn’t well-known, and it may not have had a trust factor when doing large deals or long-term deals. GoDaddy’s acquisition of Dan.com helped rectify that issue, and it’s been relatively smooth sailing since then.
This morning, Afternic made an announcement that has been in the works for a while. The sales platform launched a GoDaddy-branded landing page that is very similar to Dan.com landing pages, without the Dan.com branding.
I received a GoDaddy Domain Broker Service (DBS) inquiry for one of my favorite domain names. The offer was $25k, which isn’t enough to start a conversation. The broker understood this, likely because he can see at least one higher offer for this name and several other offers in the database. I joked with him that GoDaddy has made more money on DBS lead fees than I’ve made from this name – yet.
In speaking with the broker, he indicated that the buyer – whose identity and other background information was not shared with me – would be a good fit for the domain name. When I shared what it would take to get a deal done, he did not sound too optimistic about the buyer having the budget. Whether this is true or a negotiation tactic to get a better deal for his client is neither here nor there.
GoDaddy is running a featured auction via its GoDaddy Auctions platform with domain names from its NameFind portfolio. While I would argue the domain names aren’t as valuable as they were in its NameFind auction last year, there seem to be some good inventory-quality domain names up for bid.
Our Premium Auction event has started!
Bid and buy hundreds of domain names in this no-reserve event, including Stung․com, Focusing․com, and more!
Ends 6/20https://t.co/EXnSztagvo pic.twitter.com/ufg3HnUoZE
— GoDaddy Auctions (@godaddyauctions) June 13, 2024
When sorted, I can see there are 4 pages of auctions with the maximum 100 domain names shown. The auctions have minimum bids ranging from $299 to $7,999. This is more than the starting price for its traditional expiry auctions. I do not believe there are reserve prices beyond the minimum bid amounts, so if someone bids on a domain name and there are no other bidders, it will be sold.
