news GoDaddy's CEO: “We fully support the [domain] investors” – Blake Irving

[News]

Earlier today, GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving participated in a Product Hunt LIVE AMA session. During the course of this chat, participants had the opportunity to ask Blake just about any question related to GoDaddy, the tech space, and beyond.

Blake came out in defense of people who invest in domain names. Here’s what he said:

“Like stocks and real estate, domain names have quantifiable value. Anytime there is a situation of supply and demand, you’re going to have people investing. Since domain names are unique, there’s an opportunity. We fully support the investors who do it the right way. These are people who look for trends and register potentially good names. They then take the risk of renewing them year after year to potentially sell them.

What we don’t support is people who register trademarks, try to extort others or do things in an unethical way—and those folks are out there. Luckily, there are formal processes in place from ICANN (the domains governing body) to root out bad players. I’ve seen it work pretty well.”

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[anantj]

Somehow it sounds a bit hollow when GD pulls stunts like this - https://www.namepros.com/threads/entire-godaddy-account-repossessed.996941

 

[Kate]

Godaddy is a domainer so...

 

[baseballworld]

We don't support it but we sure will take there money while they do it.

 

[Paul Nicks]

We don't support it but we sure will take there money while they do it.

Of course we support it. We have 75 people in my org that are 100% devoted to supporting this industry. We also have invested millions of dollars in buying our own portfolio over the last couple of years because we realize the value of domains over time are a great investment, just like most of you. This is a viable, valuable, and incredibly important industry for the growth and health of the Internet.

 

[Kevin Murphy]

Supporting it.

 

[anantj]

Of course we support it. We have 75 people in my org that are 100% devoted to supporting this industry. We also have invested millions of dollars in buying our own portfolio over the last couple of years because we realize the value of domains over time are a great investment, just like most of you. This is a viable, valuable, and incredibly important industry for the growth and health of the Internet.

Sure. Beyond this, you should improve your policies AND customer focus and support policies, especially towards domainers. That'll go a long way in making a statement that you do support domain investors than a press piece

 

[poweredbyme]

CEO has changed? I haven't followed for a long time but I was really enjoying reading the blog of Bob, the old CEO.
producthunt.com and elephant hunting scandal. what a irony..

 

[RJ]

Of course we support it. We have 75 people in my org that are 100% devoted to supporting this industry. We also have invested millions of dollars in buying our own portfolio over the last couple of years because we realize the value of domains over time are a great investment, just like most of you. This is a viable, valuable, and incredibly important industry for the growth and health of the Internet.

Thank you for saying so, Paul.

I think it is a big deal to hear a public company like GoDaddy speak out in support of domaining. It helps everyone, professional and hobbyists alike, if the public opinion of domainers becomes that of a legitimate business rather than opportunists or cybersquatter scum.

 

[ivey]

Of course we support it. We have 75 people in my org that are 100% devoted to supporting this industry. We also have invested millions of dollars in buying our own portfolio over the last couple of years because we realize the value of domains over time are a great investment, just like most of you. This is a viable, valuable, and incredibly important industry for the growth and health of the Internet.

I believe you, but in that case why isn't your domain name management area improved to support domainers?

 

[Domains - Wanted]

Of course we support it. We have 75 people in my org that are 100% devoted to supporting this industry. We also have invested millions of dollars in buying our own portfolio over the last couple of years because we realize the value of domains over time are a great investment, just like most of you...

Interesting. Is reposessing accounts with peoples' entire portfolios od domains a part of your "buying" portfolio action?

I'm referring to the give or take 150,000 reposessed domains in your portfolio, acquired in very suspicious circumstances, as described in this recent thread:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/entire-godaddy-account-repossessed.996941

To be clear: I am not questioning your right to reposess individual domains due to credit card or other fraud or chargebacks. Nor your right in locking or closing accounts of people who commit fraud.

My beef with you is your Fraud Squad, your Repo Goons, going all out on a rampage, confiscating everything in sight, bullying people into submission telling them they have no rights, no recourse, or any chance of recovering any assets (domains) unrelated to the case in hand. Seems they are so busy reposessing, they have no time or patience left for any civil discourse and explanation by the client of what had transpired. GoDaddy Goon Squad says fraud, it's fraud. Period! And all domains accumulated over time in a person's account, unrelated to the case, are gone!

 

[RJ]

I'm referring to the give or take 150,000 reposessed domains in your portfolio, acquired in very suspicious circumstances, as described in this recent thread:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/entire-godaddy-account-repossessed.996941

Are these names considered part of GoDaddy's domaining portfolio?

 

[Paul Nicks]

I believe you, but in that case why isn't your domain name management area improved to support domainers?

It is being improved this year

 

[Paul Nicks]

Are these names considered part of GoDaddy's domaining portfolio?

names that are repossessed are currently not added to our NameFind portfolio. We use them internally for training, throwing a few domains into new employees' test accounts so they can play with our systems. These names are not allowed for sale as they are added to test accounts, to be perfectly clear.

We may look at adding these in the future to NameFind as the vast majority of them we pay the registry for and are stuck with due to invalid CC info. I'm not part of the fraud team so I can't comment on how many names are repossessed in bulk due to fraudulent activity but it's not something I ever recall hearing about beyond the post linked above.

 

[pokainc]

After all these years, the app (at least for Android phones) is just horrible.
Pretty much can't manage anything. Have an offer on Godaddy Auctions you want to respond to, Can't do. When you have hundreds or thousands of names, you have to go through tons of pages to reach your name. I won't go through all the issues, I'm sure Godaddy is aware.
It's just astonishing that basically for a business environment which is quick and heavily mobile-based also, the mobile service is still pre-historic.. and as domainers, it's a crucial tool that we need to be more efficient, than having to wait to go on a physical computer. Although rare, I do know some people who have internet ONLY on their cell phones, they don't own a computer.. and yes I know the "Desktop version" tab, doesn't solve the issues mentioned above.
(Besides that, to be fair, there's a lot of positive improvements)