Go Daddy set to hit another milestone.
[Update: Go Daddy hit the milestone earlier today.] About six months after crossing the 30 million domain name mark, The Go Daddy Group is set to surpass 40 million domains under management, most likely on Wednesday. So if you register a domain name tomorrow, you might get some extra notoriety if you time it just right.
Ten years ago there were only about 17 million domain names registered, and now there is a single registrar with more than twice that many domains under management. When you do the math, it’s no surprise the company grossed about $750 million last year.
It was on March 10, 2000, coincidentally the same day Go Daddy is likely to hit 40 million domains under management, that the .com bubble is generally thought of to have “burst”, with the NASDAQ topping out at 5132.52. In the period that followed, many people and companies let their domain names expire. It was during this time that the domain name gold rush caught its second wind.
Network Solutions was the biggest registrar at the time. Ten years later it has only about 6.5 million domain names under its umbrella.
Given the role Go Daddy played in bringing domain names to the mass market, I’m somewhat surprised it wasn’t nominated to The .Com 25. But rather than look at the past, I’m sure the company has its eyes on a bigger milestone: 50 million domains under management. At this pace, it could hit that number later this year.
Network Solutions and Register.com must just be scratching their heads saying “Huh? How’d that happen?”
Congrats to Godaddy. They have my business.
When NetSol was charging $100 for domain registration, GoDaddy introduced the exact same product for under $10. And history was made.
@ M. Menius
Shows the how insightful it is was to introduce vertical separation to the market place without which the GoDaddy success could never have happened. If I remember correctly John Levine deserves the credit for suggesting creating a vertically separated market place.
As an aside it is strange how the drafters of the current new gTLD process were allowed to propose removing this policy cornerstone for new gTLDs with so little community input or discussion.
Every registrar still pay NetSol for .com and .net.
Bottom line, Netsol makes money too.
@ EM – no, they pay VeriSign
@Andrew
Verisign still own Netsol.
I think last year, Netsol wants to operate separately using their own identity.
VeriSign sold NetSol in 2003.
Trying to find this information from their website, but no success.
Thanks Andrew…. not sync right now.
I thought Verisign maintained 10% ownership at the time of the sale.
I don’t know if they eventually sold the shares?
– daily visitor – I know they split the company into two, retraining the registry business and selling the registrar biz. If they owned a small part of it, they likely sold that off when NetSol was bought out again several years later. I’ve never seen anything about owning some of NetSol in its annual reports.
Quote –
8K – 12/03
“On November 25, 2003, VeriSign Inc. completed the sale of its Network Solutions domain name registrar business to Pivotal Private Equity. VeriSign received approximately $100 million of consideration, consisting of $60 million in cash and a $40 million senior subordinated note that bears interest at 7% per annum for the first three years and 9% per annum thereafter and matures five years from the date of closing. The principal amount of this senior subordinated note will be reduced to the extent of Verisign’s indemnification obligations under the Purchase Agreement, if any. The principal and interest are due upon maturity. This note is subordinated to a term loan made by ABLECO Finance to the Network Solutions business in the principal amount of approximately $40 million as of the closing date. VeriSign will retain a 15% equity stake in the Network Solutions business. “
@ Daily Visitor – Interesting. Do you know if they held onto that 15% when NetSol was sold again later in the decade?