GoDaddy.com Becomes World’s Largest Domain Name Registrar [April 26, 2005]

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (April 26, 2005) – Go Daddy.com, the No. 1 registrar of new domain names for the past three years, announced today that it had surpassed Network Solutions in total domain names under management, to become the world’s No. 1 ICANN-accredited domain name registrar for the .COM, NET, .ORG, .INFO, .BIZ, and .US domain extensions, according to the April 20 statistics reported by domain industry analyst Name Intelligence, Inc.

“From 2002 - 2004, GoDaddy.com led the domain name industry in terms of net growth and new domain names registered,” said Bob Parsons, president and founder of The Go Daddy Group, Inc., named the fastest growing technology company (ranked # 8 overall) on the Inc. 500 List of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies. “Now that we are number one in terms of domain names under management, we are truly the world's No. 1 registrar in every category. We achieved this position through hard work, perseverance and without acquiring any other registrars.”

GoDaddy.com sold its first domain name registration in November 2000. At that time, Network Solutions was the world’s number one registrar in both new domain name registrations and domains under management. But GoDaddy.com’s triple-digit growth every year since 2000 steadily eroded Network Solutions’ monopoly of both categories. GoDaddy.com also greatly expanded its Internet products and services during that time to include comprehensive hosting solutions, Web site creation tools, Secure SSL certificates, personalized email with spam and anti-phishing filtering, and more.

“GoDaddy.com’s rise to the preeminent domain name registrar -- initially in new domain registrations, and now in domains under management -- is a watershed event in the history of the domain name industry,” said Jay Westerdal, CEO, of Name Intelligence, a leading domain industry analyst that provides a variety of tools and utilities to the domain name industry at www.whoissource.com. “This is the first time that any registrar, other than Network Solutions, has ever held the No. 1 position.”
“It's important to understand that GoDaddy.com was able to achieve this milestone because of our employees’ dedicated and relentless efforts to focus on providing the services needed by our customers, and at the same time, to deliver these services better than any of our competitors,” added Parsons. “Of course, having achieved the status of No. 1 registrar, we will need to be even more diligent in order to ensure continued growth, achieve greater customer satisfaction, and retain our leadership position. We welcome the challenge.”

About The Go Daddy Group, Inc.
The Go Daddy Group, the world’s No. 1 registrar, enables individuals and businesses to acquire, create and safeguard their unique identities and brands on the Internet by offering a complete line of web development tools, including domain name registration, hosting, email systems, SSL certificates and complementary products and services. Together, The Go Daddy Group companies include three ICANN-accredited domain name registrars: flagship registrar GoDaddy.com (www.GoDaddy.com); membership-based registrar Blue Razor Domains, Inc. (www.bluerazor.com); and reseller registrar Wild West Domains, Inc. (www.wildwestdomains.com). The Go Daddy Group also offers private domain name registration services through Domains By Proxy, Inc. (www.domainsbyproxy.com), as well as SSL Certificates through its SSL Certificate Authority, Starfield Technologies, Inc. (www.starfieldtech.com). The Go Daddy Group registers a new domain name every 6 seconds.

About Name Intelligence.
Name Intelligence analyzes and tracks domain industry size and growth rates. Name Intelligence is also hosting an open domain conference for all people interested in learning more about the industry. The conference will be held in Seattle on May 25-27th 2005. For more information on the conference please visit: http://www.domainroundtable.com.

Contact:
Nick Fuller
Communications Manager
480.505.8800 ext. 4435
nfuller@godaddy.com