When the story first broke about the Godaddy boycott or “move your domain away” movement to protest Godaddy’s support of SOPA, it was two weeks ago on December 22nd.
A few days later, we released numbers based off of DailyChanges.com which we acknowledged were only a best guess based on changes made to Godaddy’s default servers of DomainControl.com and promised as soon as we had actual numbers we would report them.
Well we have been tracking the daily incoming and outgoing domain name transfers for Godaddy ever since through RegistrarStats.com, and now exactly two weeks to the day we have “Real Numbers” of completed transfers into and out of Godaddy.
The final tally:
100,000 domain names were transferred away from Godaddy
117,000 domain names were transferred into Godaddy.com
Since RegistrarStats.com is a paid service we can’t share exact and detailed numbers, but of those registrars that got the most domain names from Godaddy transferred to it, Enom.com led the way.
NameCheap.com was one of the registrars that jumped on the Boycott or “move your domain away” and issued special discount codes and promised to contribute money to he EFF if it met certain transfer in goals.
NameCheap is a Enom reseller so all of those incoming transfers into NameCheap show up under Enom.
After Enom the other registrars getting the most incoming transfers from Godaddy during this two week period were, Tucows, Name.com, and KeySystems.com.
However during the same two week period 117,000 domain names were transferred into Godaddy.com
The registrars that lost the most domain names to Godaddy in that time frame were, Moniker.com, Enom.com and Tucows.com
In the last 30 days, once again according to RegistrarStats.com, of the top 25 domain name registrars, 14 of them lost more domains through transfers out and deletions than they gained from transfers in and new registrations.
Meaning only 11 of the top 25 domain name registrars gained domains under management in the last 30 days.
The biggest gainer?
Godaddy.com
Godaddy.com had by far the largest gain of domain names adding over 200,000 in the last 30 days.
The biggest loser?
Moniker.com which lost around 80,000 domain names in the last 30 days.
For some disclaimers.
The numbers contained herein only include completed domain transfers.
Transfers that are in the process but not yet completed or transfers that failed for some reason are not included.
Also RegistrarStats.com has its own series of disclaimers you can read here.
We also discarded any transfer from or to BlueRazor and WildWest, two other registrar under Godaddy ownership.
If your very interested in stats from the registrars there really is no better source than RegistrarStats.com although you would like I had to pay for the service to have access to it.
So we will schedule a final update on the number for two weeks.
I have read some stories that suggest that the Godady “Boycott” was some how unsuccessful.
However clearly the company changed its position and not only no longer supports SOPA, but is now against the bill.
So customers spoke and the company listened I don’t know how much more you can ask for.
The battle over SOPA is far from over, and hearing are scheduled again in Congress this month.
We will keep you updated.
I thought NameCheap’s legacy names were under its old reseller agreement with eNom, but all new ones were under its own registrar since they are accredited?
Trip
NameCheap says they have over 2M domains under management which would make them the 10th largest registrar or so on par with Moniker.com
They don’t appear on the report.
Last time I checked webhosting.info they had namecheap.com with only around 115 domains
Stop beating a dead horse.
Very surprising figures, so much for a boycott..
At least Godaddy screws up big when they do screw up.
Gotta be impressed. They never do anything small.
There are a couple of issues that the above glosses over or doesn’t even consider. I have no doubt that GoDaddy may have had more domains transferred in than out. Part of that would have been transfers in that had absolutely nothing to do with SOPA. Part of that would have been steep discounts (and therefore steeply reduced margins) that GoDaddy offered to both existing and new customers, trying to get, or trying to lure back, customers. Part of that would have been GoDaddy’s first advertising in Australia, and heavy advertising in India, places they may have hoped would be untouched by the SOPA controversy. Those “gains” may well have come at the price of steep discounts and increased advertising costs overseas. After all, GoDaddy has been desperately trying to argue that the boycott failed and had no impact on them whatsoever, they had to have known that shallow reporting would look only at the numbers of registered domains, since other tangible measures would not be known publicly since they are a privately held corporation.
Second, as was even mentioned above, those numbers do not take into account transfers that were initiated and still in progress, or that failed for some reason. Its been long known that the GoDaddy GUI itself is rather busy and confusing, and its been argued that the transfer process is specifically designed to make it as difficult and confusing as possible. Having gone through it, I can believe it. If you update your contact information, you are prohibited from moving your domain for 60 days, and even an inconsequential correction can prevent you from moving a domain. But its also been widely reported that there have been innumerable problems with new roadblocks being thrown in customers’ way out the door, from incorrect and expired authorization codes, to unforseen consequences from having taken advantage of “free” offers of domain privacy, to requiring that picture ID be faxed or emailed in to transfer domains out. All of these actions, whether deliberate or merely conveniently accidental, delayed many people’s transfers for a week or more. A number of people also reported that even though they had approved the transfer with GoDaddy, their transfers were denied on the basis of a “rejection” having been filed. But I’m sure that’s all purely coincidental, and none of it has anything to do with GoDaddy wanting to jimmy the numbers so they were in the most favorable light.
Just looking at the raw numbers also ignores that for example, some prominent and important customers like wikipedia were lost. Losing wikipedia’s business and getting the equivalent number of average domains in exchange isn’t a win.
And lastly, what is totally ignored here is the hosting accounts that were lost, and that will continue to be lost. Counting domains registered is an easy, facile way of measuring the purported damage, but anyone who knows the least little thing about the industry knows that the margins and profits are in the hosting. For all we know, GoDaddy’s yearly profit from hosting Wikipedia alone could exceed what revenue those 17,000 gained domains might bring GD. It takes businesses and active websites time to find a new registrar and host, particularly if they have particularly heavy usage or special needs, it takes time for the transfer of the hosted files to be done, and that means it takes time for the changes to be reflected or the registration to be changed. And its possible to keep your domains registered in one place, and transfer your hosting first to somewhere else. That’s what I would do, make sure all the technical ducks were in a row and things working well at the new host, and the DNS pointed to the new location, before transferring registrars. Its much easier to change hosts than registrars, especially when GoDaddy is making it as difficult for disgruntled customers as possible.
“However clearly the company (gd) changed its position and not only no longer supports SOPA, but is now against the bill.”
It just shows that gd word is worth nothing and he is simply prostitute which for money does everything.
How many transfers in gd would have if not Sopa?. I am sure he lost.
So in a normal 2 week time span how many domains usually transfer out of GoDaddy.
@halloween: but i thought gui’s were supposed to make things easier? user-friendly. lol. guess again. it’s all about controlling users in very specific ways. that can be good sometimes, sure, when users are just mouse clicking zombies. but assuming the user has any clue what she wants to do, gui’s can be also be a |||brick wall||| to getting anything serious done. some blog writers have written extensively about the godaddy “web interface”. does godaddy have an restful api? doubt it.
fail and fail some more.
Where did Godaddy say they were against SOPA? What they said was they no longer supported it. They never said they oppose SOPA.
Godaddy was consulted when the bill was written. When politicians turn to experts (in this case Godaddy) they should be told why SOPA is a bad idea. That did not happen in part thanks to Godaddy. The CEO “removed blog postings that had outlined areas of the bill Go Daddy did support.” Too little and far too late.
I only own a handful of domains but they are getting moved away because Godaddy will not join with others in protecting the free-flow of information aka the internet.
Godaddy corrected themselves. I support godaddy and always will. They are the kings. They bring me sales. They are the cheapest. Best customer care. Best inventory for drops.
With all these silly ass rants against godaddy why not rant how CEO of Namecheap supports sopa one way or the other. Espn. Visa.
You guys going stop watching espn ? Or not buy any domains on your visa Card?
Come on get real. We know the truth. Fuck your egos. Godaddy does a lot of good. Like them. Hate them. Whatever.
Funny how layoffs are happening and Godaddy is hiring big time. Charity donations. To many good things about them to say.
Opps. Godaddy is just one fucked up mess based on comments above. In fact I’m going transfer another 100 domains to them and guess what. I don’t give a fuck what you think. Just like Namejet story. You guys talk the same shit and guess what your back bidding there.
Thanks in telling the facts mike!
just crumbs for GoDaddy … 🙂
JH
http://www.pcworld.com/article/247114/go_daddy_officially_opposes_sopa.html
To the one GoDaddy fan above, feel free to do as you like. But actually, Namecheap (and presumably their CEO) OPPOSES SOPA, and has from the start. GoDaddy’s CEO, since you happen to mention them, supported the Bush administration’s torture policy, was responsible for all those sleazy sexist TV ads, and posted a videotape of himself shooting an African elephant and then the villagers hacking up the dead animal on his personal blog and called himself a hero for doing it. When there was an outcry, he editted the tape and then removed it altogether, I believe. Talk about sleazeballs.
As for your question whether I’m going to stop watching ESPN, well, I don’t, so that’s easy enough, but I’ve had to give up both Daily Show and Colbert Report because Viacom is a part owner. If you check the tweets on twitter, there are people giving up NHL, NFL and ESPN because they care about SOPA, even cancelling their cable to do so, so so much for your theory there. As for Visa and Mastercard, I admit, that’s going to be the hardest one for me, since I don’t have anything else credit card wise, but I haven’t used them since I found out about this, and I’m just going to have to use cash for my groceries, and use old fashioned checks or bank account withdrawals to pay for my cable and utilities. So yes, I’m trying to cut them off as well.
As for your profanity laden rant full of inaccuracies (GoDaddy isn’t the cheapest, there are a number of less expensive registrars, and Walmart is hiring too, doesn’t make them a great company to shop at or work for) and that you seem to only care or think about yourself, sounds like you and Bob Parsons would probably get along quite well. Good luck.
@HolloweenBlogs
Your supporting sopa everyday. Same goes with your buddy namecheap. Each day both of you supporting sopa.
Not one domainer have I ever heard “unit” or “work together”
So in the meantime bashers of Godaddy will continue and I’m still saying fuck off.
And I hope the Godaddy girls on tv are hot as hell. End users will buying through Godaddy. Can namecheap offer this? Guess what namecheap they can’t. To small of a company.
To “GoDaddy is Awesome” – it would be a little easier to take your argument seriously if you could spell, form a coherent thought, or even just a coherent sentence. If the hotness of the GoDaddy girls is your main priority, well, that says as much about you as it does about GoDaddy.
@HolloweenBlogs
Thankyou in supporting sopa
It’s more the damage to the Godaddy brand
Transferring out is much more difficult than registering new domains with another registrar. Many people hold domains with more than 1 registrar
@Godaddy is awesome
You are missing the bigger picture.
Via Godaddy a clear message is being sent to EVERY company that supports SOPA and similar legislation in the future
Personally, I wasn’t surprised with those results. While Go Daddy’s the only one who truly knows, those numbers give a more-or-less, give-or-take picture.
Their consistent marketing and advertising helped “save” them from the boycott, coupled with (arguably) their switcheroo on SOPA.
World goes up and down but godaddy always win :). Like or not that’s the through.
Dang! I wish I’d been in the loop on the Transfer Day and GD’s (‘past’) support of SOPA. I would’ve transferred my 21 domains from GoDaddy with the boycott then. ‘Proceeding with my scheduled transfer this month – which I put on my calendar since I found out that the CEO’s ego found some sort of thrill from trophy hunting elephants.
Where there is money there is light..Go daddy is clever..any one agrees?