GoDaddy could wipe Efty, DAN, BB + off the map if Afternic were branded to GoDaddy

[Lox]

Read more (Comments @ Twitter ) (Comments @ DSAD)

Readers at DSAD agree and summarized in this great comment from Andy "GoDaddy
could wipe Efty, DAN, BB + clones off the map if Afternic were branded to GoDaddy; the site was updated and user friendly; and they were more democratic with tools, leads and data" (Comments @ Twitter ) (Comments @ DSAD)

 

[Recons.Com]

It is fascinating to see some of the above advice that if followed would hurt the bottom line of the company greatly!!!

They charge $17.99 because they can! They have put themselves in that position. They take loss luring regular customers for $1.99 and then keep them on hook with auto payments for $17.99

And then, they actually get to keep most larger holders, like domain investors, by offering DCC with Costco-like membership fee which pays itself off, compared to even cheap registrars, after 200-500 names.

So, again, if they were to go 9.99, at which point they would be still not competitive from price perspective, to domain savvy clients, they won't gain considerable number of new names, but they will lose (17.99-9.99)*50 million = $400 million/year in profits, from which they can keep paying for their $1.99 promos and ads everywhere.

 

[Samer]

Bob Parsons was hungry when he started building Godaddy, That fire has been gone for many years and Godaddy has settled into the "Gucci" of domain name registers and after market providers, Yet you get nothing more in return from them than you do shopping at Walmart.

They need to get fired up again at Godaddy, get hungry, they are stuck in being complacent with accomplishments made.

Agree, Parsons was pushed, sold gd for billions takeover

Godaddy’s founders vision, has been absent for awhile.

Samer

 

[tonyk2000]

As per public GD financial reports (at least last time I checked), their earnings are mostly from hosting (which was always the case, even under Bob Parsons leadership) and from non-U.S. activities (which was a wise decision in recent years). Afternic by itself does not appear to be their 1st priority. Indeed, even with 20% they charge - a good portion of it is shared with the selling registrar (if not GoDaddy), and (hopefully) with the DLS member (losing) registrar in case of fast transfer. So, indeed, any changes in 2020 are unlikely. If mr. Bhutani manages to hire new tech staff to finally repair both frontend and backend of the main GD website - this alone would be a great success.

 

[.X.]

It is fascinating to see some of the above advice that if followed would hurt the bottom line of the company greatly!!!

They charge $17.99 because they can! They have put themselves in that position. They take loss luring regular customers for $1.99 and then keep them on hook with auto payments for $17.99

And then, they actually get to keep most larger holders, like domain investors, by offering DCC with Costco-like membership fee which pays itself off, compared to even cheap registrars, after 200-500 names.

So, again, if they were to go 9.99, at which point they would be still not competitive from price perspective, to domain savvy clients, they won't gain considerable number of new names, but they will lose (17.99-9.99)*50 million = $400 million/year in profits, from which they can keep paying for their $1.99 promos and ads everywhere.

where do you suppose they got all of that inventory that drops and they are able to sell in their after market?

we are talking LLLL.com and some nice premium domain names that people are letting drop, those names came in years ago to Godaddy , that inventory is going to run out, once that inventory runs out, domainers wont be running to the Godaddy after market anymore if Godaddy pricing continues to be double of its competitors. why would anyone pay double the price for the exact same product , with pretty much the exact same features.

 

[tonyk2000]

why would anyone pay double the price for the exact same product

Because Bob Parsons did a great job promoting GoDaddy... all those superbowl ads, tv commercials and the like. imo.

 

[Lox]

... And if they reduce their commission to a 10% - 15%, that would be definitive.

This decrease in commission will have a huge impact on all AN partners/registrars. Most of would leave the table asap. Most registrars don't earn enough (AN%) on PDN (chargeback risk etc) so they'll add an additional 5%+ .

 

[Samer]

Because Bob Parsons did a great job promoting GoDaddy... all those superbowl ads, tv commercials and the like. imo.

i thought it’s because they had such a massive budget they the only registrar (still R unless count squarespace) to drop $2M on superbowl ads like it’s nothing... looks like paid off, but they seem incognito, lately, no flash (controversial or otherwise) bet they dont do it again,, -do better, tell me why? all i know about new ceo, everyone likes him, wherever he went. we’ll see how runs, should b upheaval or history tell us how gd end up

Samer

 

[Windoms]

where do you suppose they got all of that inventory that drops and they are able to sell in their after market?

we are talking LLLL.com and some nice premium domain names that people are letting drop, those names came in years ago to Godaddy , that inventory is going to run out, once that inventory runs out, domainers wont be running to the Godaddy after market anymore if Godaddy pricing continues to be double of its competitors. why would anyone pay double the price for the exact same product , with pretty much the exact same features.

You already get $8.xx registrations. Discount club.
Not talking about you in particular but in 2020 domainers should really stop complaining about paying for discount club, happens everytime they are prompted to use it.
There's no way on earth the world's largest registrars is going to lower it's .com registrations for its millions of customers, makes no sense.

The only thing we can wish for is nice platform, nice landers.
They won't be lowering any commission. They get all the marketshare and domainers aren't going anywhere, they have no reason to do it.

Free privacy with discount club could be do-able.
Don't think it's happening.

 

[tonyk2000]

Free privacy with discount club could be do-able

I'm wondering who is still buying privacy @ gd and what for... With their current whois output format, only organization name is shown (if it is entered by the registrant) and a state/country. For most registrants, it is not critical whether those remaining details are hidden or no. So, yes, it might be techically easier to start offering full privacy for free.

 

[Lox]

Because Bob Parsons did a great job promoting GoDaddy... all those superbowl ads, tv commercials and the like. imo.

Sales promotions (s.a. Super Bowl) are just one type of marketing strategy but controversial activities (Elephant) or shockvertising methods can boost the attention 100000% . Before Elephant there was a very decent but slow growth, after Elephant ... skyrocketing

 

[.X.]

You already get $8.xx registrations. Discount club.
Not talking about you in particular but in 2020 domainers should really stop complaining about paying for discount club, happens everytime they are prompted to use it.
There's no way on earth the world's largest registrars is going to lower it's .com registrations for its millions of customers, makes no sense.

The only thing we can wish for is nice platform, nice landers.
They won't be lowering any commission. They get all the marketshare and domainers aren't going anywhere, they have no reason to do it.

Free privacy with discount club could be do-able.
Don't think it's happening.

So i have to sign up and pay to be in a "Discount Club" No i don't either , and that is another ridiculous thing.

I had 99% of my domains with Godaddy from 2004 to around 2012, I have a grand total of 4 domains there right now, that only waiting until renew time comes. then they will transferred out.

understand something, I do not dislike Godaddy, I have always loved Godaddy , in the beginning, i would venture and be confident in saying it was domainers who built that platform, NP , DNF, DP and more. and with that said, they should give me a discount, they should be intetive to the very people who made them IMO.

They forgot

 

[Lox]

... it was domainers who built that platform ...
They forgot

 

[tonyk2000]

they should give me a discount, they should be intetive to the very people who made them IMO.

They forgot

As a matter of fact, some things are changing @ GD. Slowly. Some years ago (~2010?) GoDaddy premium listing was 30% (now it is 20% - in line with afternic) AND users had to purchase premium listings, with renewals, even before the domain is sold. Now the listings are free. Might be a hard decision for GoDaddy, but they did it.

 

[.X.]

As a matter of fact, some things are changing @ GD. Slowly. Some years ago (~2010?) GoDaddy premium listing was 30% (now it is 20% - in line with afternic) AND users had to purchase premium listings, with renewals, even before the domain is sold. Now the listings are free. Might be a hard decision for GoDaddy, but they did it.

I wonder if they ever will allow people to put reserves on their auctions with out paying a $4.99 fee to do so, another ridiculous fee, all those 4.99 fees for everything adds up quickly if you are doing business on a daily basis, it cuts wide margins into profits for domainers at the end of the year.

 

[scrsteven]

It's my domainer fantasy dream to test a very simple Godaddy themed buy-it-now sales lander with Godaddy checkout page and no upsells.

And then the next iteration - test it with automatic payment plans... and then test it with upsells for hosting where the domain owners get a giant commission since it's their traffic. And visitor stats / analytics too. Whew, I'm really dreaming now.

 

[Recons.Com]

where do you suppose they got all of that inventory that drops and they are able to sell in their after market?

we are talking LLLL.com and some nice premium domain names that people are letting drop, those names came in years ago to Godaddy , that inventory is going to run out, once that inventory runs out, domainers wont be running to the Godaddy after market anymore if Godaddy pricing continues to be double of its competitors. why would anyone pay double the price for the exact same product , with pretty much the exact same features.

Domain investors are also using GD, they just buy DCC, so nothing is running out. End users also have lots of great names, so inventory for auctions will be there, except we will see less and less of limited supply names, like LLL, LLLL etc, but supply for those will be drying globally, simply because it is too small number for the whole planet and more of those are put in use and/or are held by people/companies that don't let name expire.

And, again, in perspective, their biggest business is sales of names to end users or potential end users with upsell of bunch of other stuff, like hosting, privacy, guarantee etc., so they are not giving up hundreds of millions a year to improve chances of getting a bit better inventory for auctions. The whole auction department probably brings around $100MM/year for them.

 

[.X.]

I'm wondering who is still buying privacy @ gd and what for... With their current whois output format, only organization name is shown (if it is entered by the registrant) and a state/country. For most registrants, it is not critical whether those remaining details are hidden or no. So, yes, it might be techically easier to start offering full privacy for free.

Isn't the privacy option $9.99 a year??

Add that up for 1000 domain names, a huge loss for the domainer

 

[.X.]

Domain investors are also using GD, they just buy DCC, so nothing is running out. End users also have lots of great names, so inventory for auctions will be there, except we will see less and less of limited supply names, like LLL, LLLL etc, but supply for those will be drying globally, simply because it is too small number for the whole planet and more of those are put in use and/or are held by people/companies that don't let name expire.

And, again, in perspective, their biggest business is sales of names to end users or potential end users with upsell of bunch of other stuff, like hosting, privacy, guarantee etc., so they are not giving up hundreds of millions a year to improve chances of getting a bit better inventory for auctions. The whole auction department probably brings around $100MM/year for them.

Cool, and just like any other mainstream business who plays "Neiman Marcus" and isn't targeting Neiman Marcus wealthy buyers only, but mainstream consumers, will indeed see the empire fall.It always happens.

 

[tonyk2000]

Add that up for 1000 domain names, a huge loss for the domainer

With 1000 domains, one would likely have a dedicated account manager. Account managers (and even phone sales reps) should be allowed to provide discounts, in any company of such a size. Did you try to ask for better prices?

 

[.X.]

With 1000 domains, one would likely have a dedicated account manager. Account managers (and even phone sales reps) should be allowed to provide discounts, in any company of such a size. Did you try to ask for better prices?

I did, I had a dedicated account manager after the sale, My account manager told me they where shut down flat on every request i made, I began domain transfers, it took me some years to get all my names transferred out. It was no fun at all, and not what i wanted to happen, but what i had to do to protect my ROI

 

[Sutruk]

It's my domainer fantasy dream to test a very simple Godaddy themed buy-it-now sales lander with Godaddy checkout page and no upsells.

And then the next iteration - test it with automatic payment plans... and then test it with upsells for hosting where the domain owners get a giant commission since it's their traffic. And visitor stats / analytics too. Whew, I'm really dreaming now.

I agree with your dream!

 

[carob]

As per public GD financial reports (at least last time I checked), their earnings are mostly from hosting (which was always the case, even under Bob Parsons leadership) and from non-U.S. activities (which was a wise decision in recent years).

Hi I have read similar before saying domains are not important earners for Godaddy, so I was interested when I read this about 2019 GD figures for Q2:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/godaddy-names-expedia-alum-as-ceo/

The company ended the quarter with 19 million customers. Domains revenue was $334 million with hosting sales of $279.8 million. Business and applications revenue was $123 million, up 20.4

 

[wwwweb]

Interesting thread.

A scenario where Afternic 2.0 emerges assumes that Godaddy could execute an innovation agenda. In recent memory, no compelling evidence of this concept. This is why I predicted that GD will go buy it.

See here:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/happy-new-years-what-is-your-2020-forecast.1170533

This is largely a DNA issue. You can go hire that talent but it takes 2-3 years to get an innovation program firing on all cylinders, let alone for an organization with massive legacy data and likely outdated systems.

As near as I can tell, the internal innovation got cost-saved under the prior regime of beancounters. Either that, or the engineers were too busy putting out fires to line up an innovation agenda.

So, yes, it is a nice theory that Afternic 2.0 will emerge from an internal skunkworks project, but knowing the enabling requirements, I put low odds of a substantial Afternic 2.0 appearing in 2020.

A propos the comment from Reza about open access, Epik is on the Afternic MLS. That said, our request for the Godaddy auction API was formally declined. I was not entirely shocked, but still disappointed.

All indications are that Godaddy is a late-stage aspiring monopolist, milking the cow. And yet, they are nice people on the front line. Also, NamesCon, controlled by Godaddy, have been great to work with.

All that said, let's see what Aman Bhutani has to say at NamesCon in his keynote. Perhaps he will bring the beef. After all, he used to lead engineers. One man can make a difference so let's see what Aman brings.

The good news is that there is plenty of upside to go around.

Funny they would deny Epik an API, I see no reason why this is the case when many others out there have one.

Not sure if you have ever crossed paths with Aman given he worked 15 mins away from your HQ’s for many years at Expedia.

 

[tonyk2000]

Funny they would deny Epik an API

Why would Epik need an API access to GD? Interesting...

 

[Rob Monster]

Why would Epik need an API access to GD? Interesting...

Very simple.

We want to power direct buying in the expiry auctions from widgets at NameInvestors:

https://nameinvestors.com/

We can then also do programmatic buying of expiry auctions and equip anyone else to do it too.