GoDaddy


GoDaddy Inc. is an American publicly traded Internet domain registry, domain registrar and web hosting company headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and incorporated in Delaware. GoDaddy is the world's fifth largest web host by market share, with over 62 million registered domains. The company primarily serves small and micro companies, which make up most of its 20 million customers.

History

GoDaddy was founded in 1997 in Phoenix, Arizona, by entrepreneur Bob Parsons. Prior to founding GoDaddy, Parsons had sold his financial software services company Parsons Technology to Intuit for $65 million in 1994. He came out of his retirement in 1997 to launch Jomax Technologies, taking its name from a road in Phoenix Arizona.
In 1999, a group of employees at Jomax Technologies were brainstorming a new company name, with "Big Daddy" being a popular suggestion. However, finding this domain name already taken, "Go Daddy" was purchased instead. Parsons believed this to be a simple and memorable name. Jomax Technologies rebranded to GoDaddy in February 2006.
By 2001, GoDaddy was approximately the same size as competitors Dotster and eNom. In April 2005, GoDaddy became the largest ICANN-accredited registrar on the Internet. GoDaddy received a strategic investment, in 2011, from private equity funds, KKR, Silver Lake, and Technology Crossover Ventures.
In 2017, GoDaddy acquired the security platform Sucuri. In April 2017, GoDaddy acquired the Host Europe Group, including firms 123 Reg, Domain Factory, and Heart Internet, for 1.69 billion euros. In March 2018, Amazon Web Services announced that GoDaddy was migrating the vast majority of its infrastructure to AWS as part of a multi-year transition.
In January 2020, GoDaddy unveiled a new logo with a simple, sans-serif type accompanied by a heart-shaped design that spells out "GO". In April 2021, the headquarters relocated from Scottsdale, Arizona to Tempe, Arizona.
As of 2024, GoDaddy serves mostly small businesses and companies.
In 2024, the company launched GoDaddy Airo, an AI-powered suite of tools designed to automate tasks such as logo creation, website content generation, and email marketing. In June 2024, GoDaddy was added to the S&P 500 index.

Acquisitions and mergers

Infrastructure

In 2013, GoDaddy was reported as the largest ICANN-accredited registrar in the world, at the size of four times their closest competitor. They also have a facility in Phoenix, Arizona.
The website PeeringDB records that GoDaddy maintains two autonomous systems. They allow services to be accessed across the global internet. AS-26496, the main autonomous system, is reachable from six cities at nine public & private peering facilities.

GoDaddy Registry

In 2020, GoDaddy completed the acquisition of the domain registry services of Neustar and renamed the service "GoDaddy Registry". Initially, GoDaddy Registry operated the country code top-level domains.co and.us, and generic top-level domains such as.biz and.club.
On October 31, 2022, Robert Breker, the Senior Director of Engineering at GoDaddy, reported on Behind the Scenes information of GoDaddy's Webhosting Infrastructure referring to patterns focusing on customer satisfaction, single platform service, keeping Datacenter-grade hardware for all servers, and optimally using hardware.
As of January 2025, operating under the legal name "Registry Services, LLC", GoDaddy Registry operates the following top-level domains according to the IANA root database:. abogado,.beer,.biz,.blackfriday,.boston,.casa,.club,.compare,.cooking,.courses,.dds,.design,.fashion,.fishing,.fit,.garden,.gay,.health,.horse,.ink,.law,.luxe,.miami,.photo,.rodeo,.select,.study,.surf,.tattoo,.us,.vip,.vodka,.wedding,.wiki,.work,.yoga

Marketing

GoDaddy is known for its advertising on TV and in newspapers, particularly in the US market.
Celebrity endorsers have included WWE Diva Candice Michelle, racecar driver Danica Patrick, motorcycle drag and land speed racer Valerie Thompson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mark Martin, Michael & Mario Andretti, James Hinchcliffe, Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard, pro-golfer Anna Rawson, Marina Orlova, Ella Koon, Leeann Dearing Natalia Velez, personal trainer Jillian Michaels, Chad Johnson, professional poker player Vanessa Rousso, Bar Refaeli, Jesse Heiman, comedienne Joan Rivers, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Walton Goggins.

Sports sponsorships

GoDaddy started advertising in the Super Bowl in 2005. Since then, the company has expanded its marketing to include sports sponsorships.
Also, GoDaddy was co-sponsor for ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 that was hosted in England and Wales.

Super Bowl advertisements

GoDaddy's 2007 Super Bowl XLI advertisement was criticized in the New York Times as being "cheesy"; in National Review as "raunchy, 'Girls-Gone-Wild' style"; and "just sad" by Barbara Lippert in Adweek, who gave the advertisement a "D" grade.
The 2008 Super Bowl XLII GoDaddy advertisement received a negative response from the press. Adweek's Barbara Lippert described it as a "poorly produced scene in a living room where people are gathered to watch the Super Bowl. As we watch them watch, a guy at his computer in the corner of the room drags the crowd over to GoDaddy.com to view the banned ad instead." Lippert also said, "it will probably produce a Pavlovian response in getting actual viewers in their own living rooms to do the same."
In 2009, GoDaddy purchased spots for two different commercials featuring GoDaddy Girl and IndyCar Series driver Danica Patrick for Super Bowl XLIII. In "Shower", Danica takes a shower with Simona Fusco Stratten as three college students control the women's maneuvers from a computer. "Baseball" is a spoof of the steroids scandal. While "Shower" won GoDaddy's online vote, "Baseball" was the most popular of the Super Bowl. Both helped increase domain registrations by 110 percent above 2008 post-Super Bowl levels. GoDaddy posted Internet-only versions of its commercials during the game, which were extended versions containing more risque content. "Baseball" was the most watched Super Bowl commercial according to TiVo, Inc. According to Comscore, GoDaddy ranked first in advertiser Web site follow-through. Rob Goulding, head of business-to-business markets for Google, offered an in-depth analysis of Super Bowl spots that aired during Sunday's championship game. He said the most successful were multichannel-oriented, driving viewers to Web sites and "focusing on conversion as never before". GoDaddy experienced significant Web traffic and a strong "hangover" effect of viewer interest in the days that followed due to a provocative "teaser" advertisement pointing to the Web, Goulding said.
GoDaddy also advertised during the 2010 Super Bowl XLIV, purchasing two spots. The commercials "Spa" and "News" starred GoDaddy Girl and racecar driver Danica Patrick. In "Spa", Patrick is getting a lavish massage when the masseuse breaks into a spontaneous GoDaddy Girl audition. In "News", anchors conduct a 'gotcha' interview with GoDaddy Girl Danica Patrick about commercials known for being too hot for television. According to Akamai, there was a large spike in Internet traffic late in the fourth quarter of the game. This spike was tied to GoDaddy's "News" advertisement airing. CEO Bob Parsons said GoDaddy received "a tremendous surge in Web traffic, sustained the spike, converted new customers and shot overall sales off the chart".
In 2013, GoDaddy moved away from salacious advertising practices in an attempt to improve its brand image. In 2016, GoDaddy did not advertise during the Super Bowl for the first time in over a decade, but returned in 2017 with their "The Internet Wants You" campaign.
In 2025, GoDaddy returned to Super Bowl advertising for the first time in eight years with a commercial promoting their AI service Airo starring actor Walton Goggins.

IndyCar

In 2009 and 2010, GoDaddy advertised during the Indianapolis 500.
For the Las Vegas race in 2011, GoDaddy created a promotion wherein driver Dan Wheldon would have won $2.5m each for himself and fan Ann Babenco if he won the race, starting from last place. A 15-car pileup, 11 laps into the race, injured four drivers and killed Wheldon.

NASCAR

GoDaddy sponsored Brad Keselowski in the #25 for Hendrick Motorsports on a limited basis in the Sprint Cup series. After a successful 2008 season, GoDaddy is expanding its 2009 NASCAR sponsorship with the JR Motorsports organization, sponsoring 20 Nationwide Series races as the primary sponsors, split between the #5 and #88 teams. The #88 deal gave Keselowski a full 35-race NASCAR Nationwide Series sponsorship for 2009 split with Delphi and Unilever. GoDaddy will also be the primary sponsor for seven races in the Sprint Cup Series with Keselowski driving. GoDaddy.com signed a one-year deal with Darlington Raceway to sponsor the 53rd Annual Rebel 500, the fifth-oldest race on the Sprint Cup circuit. Keselowski got his third Nationwide victory at Dover – his first in the #88 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet. In the same season, Keselowski scored a second Nationwide victory in the #88 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet at the first ever NASCAR race at Iowa Speedway and then at Michigan.
For 2010, the Hendrick/GoDaddy association continued; Danica Patrick drove a 12-race schedule in the #7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, while GoDaddy.com was also the primary sponsor for Mark Martin in the #5 Chevrolet Impala for most of the 2010 and 2011 seasons.
In 2012, Danica Patrick moved from the IndyCar Racing Series to race full-time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in the #7 and part-time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in the #10 for Stewart Haas Racing where GoDaddy.com was the primary sponsor for the full season on both cars. After finishing 10th in the Nationwide Series standings with one pole award in 2012, Patrick moved to full-time in the Sprint Cup Series in 2013 where GoDaddy sponsored her full-season schedule. Patrick rewarded GoDaddy for their sponsorship by winning the pole for the 2013 Daytona 500, becoming the first woman to do so.
GoDaddy chose not to continue its sponsorship of NASCAR in 2016, intending to shift sponsorship to avenues with greater international reach. However, GoDaddy is trying to retain Patrick on a personal service contract.