GoDaddy to take its India playbook global

Company has followed a so called 'do it for me' model by setting up a team that helps local customers purchase a domain name, set up and host a site

GoDaddy, the internet domain registrar and web-hosting company for small businesses plans to replicate its India business model that has helped it to get three out of four small customers to pay small monthly fees to access services to other countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Since its launch in India, the largest market outside of the US, GoDaddy has followed a so called "do it for me" model by setting up a team that helps local customers purchase a domain name, set up and host a site or an email service. The company's 400 odd team assists over 600,000 customers in such service.

"We are building a playbook with the learning in India and take it to other markets," says Andrew Low Ah Kee, Executive Vice-President, International, GoDaddy.

GoDaddy earns on an average $130 per customer a year and Kee, who comes to the web hosting firm from investor KKR, hopes that the assisted model would help gain customers and earn higher revenue from them. It did not disclose the India numbers.

"When we launched service in local languages, our business shot up over night by 40 per cent," says Rajiv Sodhi, Vice-President and Managing Director, GoDaddy India and Australia. GoDaddy offers support in Tamil, Hindi and Marathi - three markets that have higher proportion of small business owners, who began contacting them for going online. "When we started, our offerings were big which Indian customers did not take to. We then started with smaller packs and allowed them to upgrade as they expanded their business. It has worked," he said.

GoDaddy also expanded its cloud offerings in India, as part of the global launch, allowing a set of applications that can be hosted. It also brought in Flare, the community app that helps entrepreneurs share ideas and improve their product or service.

"The launch of Cloud Servers from GoDaddy will enable India's web developers with affordable and intuitive solutions to better serve their customers and grow their businesses", said Sodhi in a statement. "India presents a sizeable market for expanded hosting products such as Cloud Servers. By offering a powerful, yet simple cloud offering that integrates domains, DNS, security and backups all in one place, developers can save time and exceed their clients' expectations."