GoDaddy phenomenon - Is this a bubble ?

[dotnom]

I don't understand why everyone is trying to register names at godaddy

I admit that he has a good marketing but their services do not use extra terrestrial technology
Sexy ads and fair support can't make him have 7,622,329 difference from the next registrar

Some Stats (Position - Registrar - Market Share - Number of registered domains)
1 GO DADDY 18.638% 14,326,239
2 NETWORK SOLUTIONS 8.722% 6,703,910
3 ENOM 7.262% 5,582,226
4 TUCOWS 7.099% 5,456,488
5 MELBOURNE IT 5.462% 4,198,454
6 SCHLUND+PARTNER 3.878% 2,980,602
7 REGISTER.COM 3.525% 2,709,911
8 WILD WEST DOMAINS 2.701% 2,076,166
9 MONIKER 2.287% 1,758,048
10 BULKREGISTER 2.040% 1,568,434
11 PUBLIC DOMAIN REGISTRY 1.738% 1,335,976
12 NAMEKING.COM 1.658% 1,274,164
13 DIRECTNIC 1.595% 1,225,912
14 DOTSTER 1.469% 1,129,535
15 ONLINENIC 1.379% 1,059,858


There are hundreds of good and cheap registrars

The godaddy phenomenon looks like a bubble to me
It is expanded too much
I believe it's better for the market in order to work properly to have equal sides
This promotes competition and the end user takes the benefits

Try using other registrars too, you'll be surprised but they do offer similar and sometimes better services than godaddy

We deal with domain from early 1995 and we used many registrars, some were good, some average, other just bad
A steady registrar for me is tucows, a nice overall namecheap, a secure one moniker, a cheap and good domainsite/name.com

What i like to godaddy is that it gave some value to daddy or maybe the it's like "go daddy get me a domain" which means that once again daddy is going to put his hand to the pocket

What do you like and what you don't like with GoDaddy ?
Am i the ONLY one that don't like GoDaddy ?

 

[yandig]

Well, I only use the following:

Godaddy, Namecheap, Dotster, enom & Namepros.

Godaddy has the best pricing that I know of and they take paypal. Their interface and checkout are not the easiest to use, but their pricing makes up for it. It's also good to have the bulk of your names at registrars that are widely used.

 

[Spade]

I pretty much only use GoDaddy, however bottom line is that GoDaddy does some major advertising and has done great branding job in terms of the public. If your not in the Domain game, GoDaddy is the only place you go. They continue to advertise and my understanding is they will, yet again, have a superbowl commercial.

Its not a bubble, its advertising. I think if another registrar did it, they'd see an increase in market share as well. Bottom line!

Justin

 

[namewaiter]

Sexy ads and fair support can't make him have 7,622,329 difference from the next registrar

well what else would you attribute it to?

 

[Robert Allen]

If you call the ads on godaddy sexy, then you are blind, the lady on there is not exactly fit, lol.

Anyway, back on topic, i think godaddy sucks, and i dont use them, well, only for 2 domains, findyourfriends.name and flash.vg.

I want to boycott godaddy. They suck.

Rob

<Post edited to remove the "B" word and replace with "lady"> -db-

 

[dotnom]

Its not a bubble, its advertising. I think if another registrar did it, they'd see an increase in market share as well. Bottom line!

So with advertising they convince experienced domainers to join ?

I can agree that with high frequency of domain sales it's easier to push the names from a registrar many people already have an account but apart from that i don't see godaddy as an option at all

 

[mjnels]

So with advertising they convince experienced domainers to join ?

who said everyone was experienced?


If someone knows godaddy exists and they decide to get into domaining some day, thats who theyll use.

and no other registrar has commercials on TV.. at least in the USA that ive seen or heard about.

 

[namewaiter]

So with advertising they convince experienced domainers to join ?

I can agree that with high frequency of domain sales it's easier to push the names from a registrar many people already have an account but apart from that i don't see godaddy as an option at all

that's part of it.

early on they had the best pricing around. most went from net sol at $60/year to dotster at $30 .. then came godaddy at the time like $10/year.

once alot of domainers established their accounts there it made it difficult to leave. the management tools are pretty easy to use also.

then alot of 'domainers' set up their resale account under wild wild west - another reason they stick with them.

add in the marketing to the small business who doens't know any better and it's easy to see why they're so wildly popular.

 

[Ronald Regging]

Moniker is the best registrar out there IMO. Since I've switched I have not seen a single negative thing about their service. They're solid and with NP pricing, cheap.

I do have a lot of domains at GD still, I wont transfer til they're up for renewal. GD is decent, but they have some downfalls, such as not having live whois for registering domains. Come on...

I think for the volume that GD is doing, they offer a decent and cheap service. I cant really fault them, because they maintain their operation fairly well. GD is a good service, it's just not meant for serious or even semi-serious domainers.

 

[domainacrobat]

I think for the volume that GD is doing, they offer a decent and cheap service. I cant really fault them, because they maintain their operation fairly well. GD is a good service, it's just not meant for serious or even semi-serious domainers.

This pretty muck sums it up! You cant really fault them, considering they have pretty good reliability and billing seems to be accurate. I always get a refund if a name is registered a few minutes before I got it. Now that I have so many Domains I am considered one of their "retention customers" I get special pricing and custom support. I have my own special person I call at godaddy. My normal rate for .Coms is $6.95 without codes. Of course I get discounts on other TLDs too, but I have to call them to recieve it, I usually am to lazy to call LOL so I just use some handy codes. All in all they bend over backwards for me now that I have spent soo much there. I actually like their service. I see alot of people saying Godaddy is not right for the serious domainer, I must say, they treat you completely different if you own over 400 names, I am pretty involved and dare I say serious.

 

[gamehouse]

Some of my names were registered at Godaddy because of their coupons. They used to work for renewals also. Since thats not the case now, I may move my names to moniker gradually.

GH

 

[shockie]

it seems that it's just the combination of everything. they are large and offer many services. their prices are good (+ coupons), AND they're reliable. the advertisements don't hurt either and they seem pretty well rounded. they have a podcast, and just overall have it all. whereas some places have good prices but terrible service, or high prices, or only offer .coms, etc etc... also, they have tdnam....

in summary, i think it's their well-roundedness that attributes to their huge marketshare.

 

[cache]

since a lot of people have accounts there making push easy, that is the reason I stay there.

 

[SpareDomains]

I prefer enoms control panel and ease of use over godaddy when dealing with hundreds of domains, the advantage to godaddy is their 24/7 support phone number.

 

[dotnom]

First of all it's good to see there are people that don't like GoDaddy
With some many reviews and references of this company i thought i was a rare case
I do agree that GoDaddy is more for end-buyers and less for domainers
GoDaddys sell domains as cherries and wait to buy an extra to charge you the pie

They're good at marketing as we all can agree but nothing more than that
They can't reach the level of services of moniker or enom

What is strange is why all the other companies don't create similar marketing strategies, support schemes, special support for large customers, old customers, coupons and low prices and maybe tv ads too

If this "bet" gave them 18% of the global market share why other don't follow ?
All the other companies have money, professionals, support teams, marketing dept and much more
Do they see something that we don't ?

 

[Rom]

I only use GoDaddy. They have the best support and I don't need any extra features.

And stop relating the ad to quality of godaddy. Most people didn't even see the ad when used godaddy. GoDaddy ads are perfect

 

[Dave_Z]

it seems that it's just the combination of everything. they are large and offer many services. their prices are good (+ coupons), AND they're reliable. the advertisements don't hurt either and they seem pretty well rounded. they have a podcast, and just overall have it all. whereas some places have good prices but terrible service, or high prices, or only offer .coms, etc etc... also, they have tdnam....

in summary, i think it's their well-roundedness that attributes to their huge marketshare.

And it's because many people don't exactly know (or even care) how exactly
domain names are handled. They only care about getting results based what
they're willing to pay.

 

[YesBrilliant]

I must say, they treat you completely different if you own over 400 names.

You were lucky, so.

I have 500 domains at GoDaddy, called them (via a paid call since they do Not have a TollFree number) asking for a better pricing and they told me that only their 5,000 best customers get discounts. After that response I started moving my domains to Moniker.

Also talking about another @#$%^&* registrar, 1and1 or SCHLUND+PARTNER, that IS quite impressive that they still have so many customers. Many here talked about the power of the GoDaddy advertisements, even more we can say about 1and1 and their one-dozen pages fullzize in several business magazines. There is where they get their newer customers...

 

[tykoblue]

I don't understand why everyone is trying to register names at godaddy

I admit that he has a good marketing but their services do not use extra terrestrial technology
Sexy ads and fair support can't make him have 7,622,329 difference from the next registrar

But marketing is everything (along with pretty good service). How many registrars have a notorious celebrity entrepreneur like Bob Parsons in charge? He's the first guy to boldy try and market domain names to the masses (think Superbowl). It doesn't matter if domainers don't like them, they are the only registrar an average person has even heard of.

 

[circa1850]

I have my issues with GoDaddy from time to time but overall I am happy with the service. Knowing some folks by name is a big help. I guess I have a hell of a lot of domains with them and resellers.

Most of all, it is a cash cow. They delayed their IPO previously. I will be looking for it in the future.

If anyone gets wind of it, PM me, please.

...fullzize in several business magazines...

Did you mean fullsized or fertilized...pure crap for service. Must be spending a ton for print advertising.

By the way, getting back to the original question in the post...is this a bubble?

Hardly. GoDaddy now has lobbyists in Washington DC to protect its interests...domain names. I think ICANN turning the services of dot com domains over to Verisign without competitive bids or putting it up for sealed bids really pissed many registrars off.

GoDaddy is doing one thing right...added value for the domain. What used to be add on fees for each little incidental thing is now included in the domain purchase. I could run the whole list but you would be better served checking it out yourself.

8-10 years ago, many of us were paying perhaps $49.99 per domain per year, and some even more. I welcome the competition and it has been healthy for the market and certainly healthy for my wallet.

Marketing is pivotal to their success. I think they are sending a strong message to the others...keep up with us or see ya!

Admittedly SuperBowl ads are not cheap. But they have a bundle of money to spend and it is a tax write off to begin with. They will get back what they spend in a matter of a week or perhaps even in a few days.

As much as I criticize TDNAM and its blatant abuse of its own icons and inflated numbers to sell a piece of crap domain name, their marketing strategy here is also very successful. GoDaddy and its auction service, TDNAM, are quite successful at self promotion and recycling their own product.

Having been in advertising for years, I can also tell you that controversy is free publicity. The big busted woman in the court room or other commercials can be called sexist but it sure as hell gets a lot of attention and talk and free press...that is the key, FREE press. So what Bob Parsons does spend on the SuperBowl ad, he'll save a bundle by all the networks and post superbowl shows talking about it. Time is money in the network realms and we are literally talking minutes; 30 second or 60 second spots. Bob Parsons and GoDaddy could not even begin to afford the amount of time others will devote to discussing and replaying the ads.

A one minute commercial will be in the neighborhood of $2.5mil, if I am not mistaken. When you take into account all the talk show, post game show, the following day morning shows, and even your local TV station possibly airing the spot, we’re talking about potential immeasurable hours of FREE press from a one minute spot.

I do feel that Bob Parsons is his own biggest fan and it shows. I have strongly disagreed with some of his comments and blogs. But when you got the moola and influence and empire he has, Bob could care less what I think.

GoDaddy is (was) planning on becoming a publicly held company. I am awaiting this decision and announcement and I will surely invest. Like I said, it is a cash cow. They sell a combination of letters, numbers, and words called domain names. They recycle their own product in the form of auctions. The sell services that no one really needs sometimes. Their hosting plans are affordable, reasonable, flexible, and feature rich.

So if the bubble bursts for GoDaddy, then it will burst the entire domain name market and potentially the internet itself. You can’t expect a giant to go down and not have rippling effects throughout the industry.