BusinessWeek.com has just covered the Godaddy.com in an article entitled “The Challenge of Classing Up Go Daddy”
Here are a few highlights but you should checkout the original article:
“In the 15 years since its founding, Go Daddy has earned more than its fair share of press, much of it acid-tongued.”
“There were the Super Bowl ads full of scantily clad women which brought charges of sexism. In 2011, video surfaced of founder Bob Parsons killing an African elephant, part of a regular series of expeditions he says help protect farmers’ crops from rampaging pachyderms. And late last year the company’s support for an antipiracy bill opposed by Google (GOOG), Twitter, and other Web giants earned the domain-name company the loathing of the Internet’s cognoscenti. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales called the stance “unacceptable” and switched his site to a different domain registrar.”
“Sales reached $1.14 billion last year, up from $493 million five years ago.”
“Private equity highfliers Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), Silver Lake, and Technology Crossover Ventures see the potential for even more upside. In July, they paid about $2.25 billion for a majority stake in Go Daddy, a deal that left Parsons fabulously wealthy and made millionaires of 35 employees.”
“Change is good, says Warren Adelman, a nearly 10-year veteran of the company who took over the chief executive officer position from Parsons in December 2011. “We are synonymous with inexpensive domains and sexy girls,” Adelman says. “I think there is a different message we have to expose people to.”
“More than 53 million domain names have been registered through Go Daddy, and it hosts websites for more than 5 million account holders.”
“Despite its rogue public persona, Go Daddy has achieved a reputation for great service. Three-fifths of its 3,500 employees work in customer care, and it has won several awards for its service. Sign up for a Go Daddy account, and an actual human will call within a day to make sure everything is going smoothly. It’s the type of service you might expect from a company selling a $50,000 car rather than a $12.99 per year domain name.”
Like I said, check out the full article here
*
I suspect that Godaddy will evolve over time and grow up. The author of that article is right; customer service is A-1.
I don’t like the sexism and the elephant killing incident, but Parsons, no longer a majority owner, will slowly fade away. Already, I’m seeing images of clean-cut women on the home page (for example, the professional-looking blonde lady).
In the end, customer service is what will make or break a company.
Period.
*
go daddy sexism is rampant. i wrote parsons one time and asked if i could be a go daddy guy and i never even received the courtesy of a response
Godaddy has served its 15 years at a crucial time when internet was evolving, and so its name has to have that kind of strength,, and a great service is needed to maintain it…
everyone on internet knows about GoDaddy, and automatically this gives them edge over any other service provider…
their marketing is so so strong..
The Registrar (and ICANN) Business Model Does Not Scale
Coax cable, copper wires and fiber do not scale
The traffic (eyeballs and wallets) are migrating to other solutions
Educated, enlightened people migrate – Darwinism leaves many behind