Despite a massive Twitter campaign and a blog post that claims “Go Daddy no longer supports SOPA legislation” the company and its CEO have dodged questions about opposing the bill. In essence, they are taking a lesser role by not showing support for the bill. They have not opposed it.
This week, they lost around 72,000 domain registrations. At a yearly discounted rate of $6.99 (most registrations are higher), that’s over half a million dollars per year. It is apparently not enough for them to speak out against the bill.
Everyone from large corporations like Google down to small startups like Oklahoma City Dodge are voicing concern about the legislation. “We are watching this subject very closely and looking at what domain changes will need to be made because of GoDaddy’s support of this legislation,” said Mike Chell.
How many domains is the company willing to lose before they oppose this abomination of legislation? Do they believe that when they “step back and let others take leadership roles” we are going to see it as something other than a “duck and cover” public relations move to try to get out of the spotlight and hope someone else takes the brunt of the attacks while they quietly support the bill?
Are 72,354 domains enough? Not even close. It’s a drop in the bucket. They have anywhere from 15,000 to 40,000 domains added daily. Despite cries from the internet, yesterday was a good day with over 32,000 added. Go Daddy has not felt much pain yet. The “PR nightmare” that many of us in the tech industry perceive is happening to them hasn’t hit their pocketbooks in any real form, yet.
Until the effect is more pronounced, they can afford to deflect questions and let the negative PR pass. More must be done.
148 User Comments
Anonymous
Godaddy knows these numbers are being tracked. They can’t control the number of domains that are canceled or transferred, but they do have control over the number of new domains that come into their system. I’ve been digging through the whois details on some of the new domains that they are registering and it seems like there are more registrants that aren’t traceable then is usually the case. If they are registering domains just to pad the numbers that will cost them extra on top of the cost of the domains they’re losing. And lets not forget all of the future sales this bad PR has cost them. And the wind it has put in the sails of their competitors, this Godaddy thing has been great marketing for Namecheap. We’re costing them but until they declare their opposition to SOPA in a believable manner it won’t be enough.
Paul Duncan
”
Despite cries from the internet, yesterday was a good day with over 32,000 added.”
Misleading. They got a net of less than 1000 domains. That is NOT a good day for them. Have your editor (if you even have one there) smack you upside the head.
Anonymous
Have your calculus teacher smack you upside the head. I say that with <3. Net is a local minimum, the added domains are a steady influx. As soon as the incoming goes down then we can talk.
Money wise it might not be a good day for them, trends wise it's no big deal as long as they feel they will be rescued by whomever they sold their support to.
Anonymous
Sadly… They were likely good to have in our corner on this mess. The SOPA will likely pass either way since, you know, congress could give a fuck about the people who voted them into office.
I would rather have godaddy taking the lead than time warner or Viacom.
Cheap .ME Domains
Unless the competitors, who are now taking advantage of GoDaddy’s debacle to give users temporary promos, can keep the prices low in the long term, GoDaddy will still win out simply because users want cheap domains and many new registrants might be unaware of SOPA. Users will simply search for cheap domains and discover GoDaddy offers some of the best rates in the market. Network Solutions for example wants to uphold internet freedom but it charges users a whopping $34.99 to register 1 domain. GoDaddy, charges $7.49 for the same domain and has special offers. So why should I choose NSI? I don’t think you can ignore that if you are shopping with your mind instead of emotions.
Anonymous
LOL, Go Daddy sucks! Always has, and always will.
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