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GoDaddy, a US-based domain names registrar and web hosting services provider that entered India in mid 2012, is increasing its efforts to bring more small and medium businesses (SMBs) online in the country, according to India vice-president and managing director Rajiv Sodhi.
“India, which is on the cusp of Internet growth, though only 10-12 per cent penetrated, is a priority market for us. There is a huge potential in the country to come online,” he told Business Standard on the sidelines of DomainX, an international domain name conference.
GoDaddy, which has a global domain names portfolio of over 55 million, has its India headquarters in Gurgaon and care centre in Hyderabad. Nearly as old as the Internet itself, 30 percent of all Internet currently runs through GoDaddy.
Stating that there were about 270 million domains globally while India has only 3.5 million domains, Sodhi said this was about to change as more and more Indians were coming online, courtesy the growing Internet usage.
The company’s mission was to radically shift the global economy towards small businesses, Sodhi said, adding that GoDaddy’s idea was to bring SMBs online, and make sure that they had good identity, presence and growth.
“At present, over 70 per cent of our customers are SMBs. We are driving awareness among SMBs on why they should come online and the benefits that they would get by doing so,” he said.
TLDs emerging in India
Country code top-level domains (TLDs), like .Bharat domain name in devanagri script launched by the National Internet Exchange of India (Nixi), are evolving in India, said Anshul Goyal, co-founder of Domain Name Owners' Association of India (DNOAi).
“Such local TLDs, however, will pose many challenges such as legal disputes related to domain names. DNOAi is providing a platform to various stakeholders, including investors, entrepreneurs and tech-savvy innovators, and creating awareness including legal nuances to tackle legal disputes,” he said.
