Thursday of last week, the world’s biggest domain registrar GoDaddy made an announcement that it has acquired Afternic, one of the industry’s leading domain name aftermarket companies based in Waltham, Massachusetts.
As one of the well-known cheap hosting service provider, GoDaddy has put most of its acquisition movements on improving its small business hosting over the past year. However, Afternic acquisition is more focused on bolstering the domain-side of the business ahead of the new TLD rollout.
According to GoDaddy, this program allows customers to buy registered domain names offered for sale easily and quickly by creating an unprecedented level of domain name aftermarket inventory from one source and a frictionless marketplace.
By fueling a more diverse aftermarket, the Domain Listing Service of Afternic shown domain names at over 100 different registrars that also gives new TLDs registries the most exposure and customers the best experience.
GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving indicated the right domain name is important for business. And when talking to Afternic acquisition movement, he said,
“GoDaddy is working to bring the ‘domain aftermarket’ together with new registrations and make both super-simple to access. Our customers need an easy way to buy the name they want, regardless of whether it’s new or has been registered previously. This acquisition forms a registrar-led process that creates faster and more trusted transactions across the board.”
“The success of the new TLDs and the aftermarket relies on a tight-knit group of diverse registrars and Afternic has done tremendous work to bring everyone together,” said GoDaddy Vice President and General Manager Mike McLaughlin.
In the next few months, in addition to incorporate the DLS into its domain search results and add its aftermarket domain inventory to the DLS, GoDaddy also plans to acquire SmartName, a domain parking service, and NameFind, a new service that is quite helpful for SMB customers.