Type of business | Public |
---|---|
Traded as | : GDDY |
Founded | 1997 |
Headquarters | Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S. |
Founder(s) | Bob Parsons |
Chairman | Charles Robel |
CEO | Blake Irving |
Industry | Domain Registrar, Web hosting, SSL certificates, small businesses |
Revenue | US$1,607,300,000 (2015) |
Net income | US$−75,600,000 (2015) |
Employees | 5000+ (2015) |
Website | www |
Alexa rank | 120 (November 2016[update]) |
GoDaddy Inc. is a publicly traded Internet domain registrar and web hosting company. As of December 2014, GoDaddy served approximately 13 million customers and had 4,908 employees worldwide. The company is known for its advertising. It has been involved in several controversies related to censorship.
GoDaddy was founded in 1997 by Baltimore, Maryland entrepreneur Bob Parsons. Prior to GoDaddy, Parsons sold his financial software services company, "Parsons Technology, Inc." to Intuit for $64m in 1994. Parsons came out of his retirement in 1997 to launch Jomax Technologies, which later became GoDaddy Group Inc. GoDaddy received a strategic investment from top venture capital funds, KKR, Silver Lake, and Technology Crossover Ventures.
In 1999, a group of employees at Jomax Technologies were brainstorming and decided to change the company name. An employee said, "How about Big Daddy?" However, the domain name had already been purchased. Parsons replied, "How about Go Daddy?" The name was available, so he bought it. Parsons said the company stuck with the name because it made people smile and remember it.
The company changed its name branding from "Go Daddy" to "GoDaddy" in February 2006.
In 2001, soon after Network Solutions was no longer the only place to register a domain, GoDaddy was approximately the same size as competitors Dotster and eNom.
In April 2005, GoDaddy became the largest ICANN-accredited registrar on the Internet.
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 270,000 square foot facility in Phoenix, Arizona.
In March 2009, GoDaddy added pro-golfer Anna Rawson.
In August 2009, another GoDaddy Girl was announced. A Russian native, Marina Orlova is an online linguist, explaining the origins of words on her website.
In 2010, GoDaddy added personal trainer Jillian Michaels as a GoDaddy Girl. Michaels is known for her role as a coach on NBC's show, "The Biggest Loser".