Go Daddy
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| Go Daddy
<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align:center; padding:16px 0 16px 0;">Image:Godaddy-Logo.svg</td></tr> | |
| Type | Private company |
|---|---|
| Founded | Scottsdale, Arizona 1997 |
| Headquarters | Scottsdale, Arizona, USA
<tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Key people</th><td>Bob Parsons</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Industry</th><td>Domain Registrar</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Products</th><td>Web services</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Revenue</th><td>Image:Green Arrow Up.svg $100 million in 2005</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Website</th><td>http://www.godaddy.com</td></tr> |
Go Daddy is an Internet domain registrar and hosting company, which also sells e-business related software and services.
Founded in 1997 by Bob Parsons, who previously founded the software development company Parsons Technology, Inc., Go Daddy has become the largest ICANN-accredited registrar and the only registrar to ever surpass Network Solutions in total domain names registered. Go Daddy won the CNET Editor's Choice award in 2001 and the Name Intelligence Largest Net Gain Award in both 2002 and 2003, jumping from fifth largest registrar to third largest overall, trailing only Network Solutions and Tucows. The Go Daddy Group, which includes Wild West Domains (its resale brand) as well as Blue Razor (its bulk domain brand), is currently the largest registrar in the world[1].
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[edit] Company history
Since Go Daddy's expanded growth into the information technology industry, it has participated in activities concerning the Internet in general. In the recent past, Go Daddy sued VeriSign, Inc., over the Site Finder controversy which put a wildcard in all domain names causing a web site from VeriSign, Inc. to appear if the domain name had not been registered. This event caused controversy over VeriSign's role as the sole maintainer of the .com and .net domain names. VeriSign pulled the wildcard service after a letter from ICANN. GoDaddy was also more recently sued by Web.com for patent infringement.<ref>[2]</ref> <ref>[3]</ref>
Go Daddy gained market share against competitor Network Solutions, surpassing them to become the largest domain registrar on April 26, 2005.<ref>[4]</ref> Speculation for this includes lower prices by Go Daddy for domain registrations, plus the expansion of their products. On October 27, 2006 Go Daddy went offline unexpectedly rendering all hosted websites (including their own) offline. This was resolved quickly and said to be a network issue.[citation needed]
As part of their corporate giving, in April 2006, the company donated $10,000 to the OpenSSH development program, which is managed by OpenBSD.<ref>[5]</ref> They have also donated $10,000 in March 2006 to perverted-justice.com which seeks to catch child predators.<ref>Radio GoDaddy Rebranded to Life Online(TM) With Bob Parsons</ref>
[edit] Awards
Go Daddy has won the Arizona Corporate Excellence Award for fastest growing privately held company in 2003 and Named Arizona Hot Growth Company in 2004.<ref>[6]</ref> Nationally, Go Daddy has been ranked #102 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing privately held companies of 2005.<ref>The 2005 Inc. 500 Profiles</ref> Of the privately held technology companies on the list, Go Daddy ranked #1. Ed Denison Business Leader of the Year, awarded to Bob Parsons at the Arizona Governor's 2005 Innovation Celebration. Go Daddy has also been ranked #20 on the 2005 Deloitte Technology Fast 500.<ref>[7]</ref>
[edit] Advertisements
Featured on their website, most of Go Daddy's commercials began with the 2005 Super Bowl advertisement, and from there went further to other television stations, with many being rejected for content. Most of the TV ads star World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Diva Candice Michelle, in some sort of sexual-related theme, that has caused some stir and controversy.
[edit] 2005 Super Bowl advertisement
In 2005, the company produced a commercial to parody the controversy over an incident that occurred during the previous year's Super Bowl halftime show. It was aired in its first scheduled time slot, but was pulled from its second spot by Fox following complaints from the NFL. Following this, Go Daddy President Bob Parsons was interviewed by several media outlets.
Although the ad did not go over well with some viewers <ref>[8]</ref>, Go Daddy saw traffic to its website increase considerably more than to the sites of other Super Bowl advertisers. This effect, however, could be attributed to the Internet-based nature of Go Daddy's business. <ref>[9]</ref>
Candice Michelle is referred to as "Miss GoDaddy.com" or the "Go Daddy Girl" by fans, and on WWE TV shows, where she also does the "Go Daddy Dance" (twirling her arm around her body) as part of her gimmick.
[edit] 2006 Super Bowl advertisement
Candice Michelle appeared in the 2006 Super Bowl advertisement for Go Daddy. Approval of the advertisement was tough to achieve, but the 14th version submitted was finally deemed "acceptable" on February 2 <ref>[10]</ref>. According to Bob Parsons, GoDaddy's racy commercials have spawned the term 'GoDaddy-esque' in marketing circles. He describes the word as meaning fun, edgy and a touch inappropriate. WWE has announced that since the ad that is airing at the Super Bowl is a highly edited version of the original ad, they will show the full uncensored ad the day after on Monday Night RAW <ref>[11]</ref>. Additionally, Go Daddy has put up a number of new ads with Candice Michelle on their site. <ref>Super Bowl Timeline</ref>
[edit] Podcast Advertising
Go Daddy is notable for being one of the first companies to take advantage of advertising in podcasts. Go Daddy has a contract with Adam Curry's PodShow Network, and all of PodShow's podcasts play Go Daddy advertisements, most of which are simply spoken by the hosts of individual podcasts.<ref>[12]</ref> Only a few major companies have taken to advertising via podcasts (another notable advertiser is Earthlink, which also advertises on PodShow, CNET.com's Buzz Out Loud and in early 2006 paid the popular video podcast Rocketboom a reported $40,000 for a week of ads<ref>[13]</ref>), however it seems to be a lucrative market.
[edit] Controversies
[edit] Anti-spam policies
Go Daddy has an anti-spam policy which has generated some controversy. Go Daddy defines spam as unsolicited e-mail, forum posts, online chats, instant messages and guestbook entries. If GoDaddy determines that spam was associated with a purchased service, the company suspends or cancels domain registration, hosting, and e-mail for two days, and requires the payment of a reactivation fee before the services are reactivated.<ref>Go Daddy Spam Policy</ref> The reactivation fee is $199 per domain. This policy is considered by some to be extremely strict compared to other domain registrars and hosting companies.<ref>""GoDaddy no more!" Auctions Watchers, Dec 31, 2005, retrieved April 24, 2006</ref><ref>"Godaddy Holding Customer Sites to Ransom?" Threadwatch, September 11, 2005, retrieved April 24, 2006</ref>
[edit] Domain Parking
Whenever a customer registers a new domain without specifying name servers, Go Daddy parks the new domain on their own name servers.<ref>Go Daddy Controversies</ref> When the domain is requested in a browser, Go Daddy displays a "Coming Soon" page that includes extensive amounts of Google advertising, as well as advertising for Go Daddy services. This creates a lot of traffic for the Go Daddy landing pages, and thus generates a large amount of revenue. If the customer never finishes setting up the name servers, Go Daddy receives free advertising on the domain for an entire year or more, until it expires.
[edit] Going Public / Not Going Public
On May 17, 2006 it was announced that Go Daddy was going public.<ref>[14]</ref> However, on August 8, 2006 Bob Parsons, CEO of GoDaddy, announced that after some serious consideration, GoDaddy was not going to go public and that he had withdrawn the company's IPO filing.<ref>[15]</ref>
[edit] References
<references/>
[edit] See also
- List of Domain Registrars
- Domain Name
- Bob Parsons
- Life Online with Bob Parsons
- Domains by Proxy
- Candice Michelle
