Namecheap held its annual Move Your Domain Day (MYDD) yesterday. While the event is used by Namecheap to bolster its registration numbers, it also raises funds for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Since 2011, the company has reportedly donated over $250,000 to the EFF as a result of this marketing effort.
During yesterday’s event, 33,428 domains were transferred to Namecheap using the EFF coupon code that was created for the Move Your Domain Day event. This means that Namecheap will donate a total of $50,845.50 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I understand that yesterday’s event was the largest to date, surpassing the initial event held in 2011.
According to a Wikipedia entry, the impetus for Move Your Domain Day was “initially in response to Go Daddy’s support of the Stop Online Piracy Act.” As you are probably aware, GoDaddy received quite a bit of negative publicity after the company’s 2015 Super Bowl commercial was revealed. Sensing another opportunity, Namecheap used social media to announce a transfer deal to benefit the Humane Society. In addition to the MYDD transfers, another 696 domains were transferred to Namecheap with the PUPPYLOVE coupon, and the company will donate $1,044 to the Humane Society. GoDaddy later announced that the Superbowl commercial would not air, but the damage was done.
Incidentally, Namecheap has another special offer today for new .CO domain name registrations. As part of the Product Hunt Start up Toolkit, the company is offering .CO domain names for .99/each. They are only offering 2 per “household,” and the coupon code to use is “producthunt.”
