Six months after formally entering the South African market, GoDaddy says growth and response in the local market has been “extremely positive”.
This was revealed by Selina Bieber, regional director for Turkey and MENA at GoDaddy EMEA, responding to ITWeb during a fireside chat with tech entrepreneurs at Tshimologong Precinct yesterday.
Although it officially launched in the country in March, the US-based Web hosting company already counted local businesses as part of its clientele. At the time of the launch, the company expressed that SA is an important market for it, saying the customer base in the region grew 25% year-on-year in 2018.
Speaking about formally entering the local market, Bieber said it was a way of saying GoDaddy is here and here to engage.
“The most valuable part of that has been we’ve now got a local way to communicate with people…we are able to add more value and contribute to the local market on that journey of entrepreneurialism, going from brick and mortar to maybe starting a new digital journey.
“We’ve been running workshops that focus on how to build an online presence, looking at the entire scope – not just a Web site but how these components of an online presence work together and how to build it. This includes the tips one needs to know and the planning process to go through.
“It’s a hands-on way of teaching people how to build a Web site using our services. We’ve been running this for about four months and we’ve seen a great response to that. It’s great to see we’ve now got businesses that come out of those workshops with the Web site up and running.”
While Bieber didn’t divulge how many local businesses have signed up for GoDaddy Web hosting services, she said the company is excited to see what the future holds.
When launched, it specified it was targeting the small and medium enterprise market, a market Bieber noted the company is still focused on.
At launch in March, Stefano Maruzzi, GoDaddy vice-president for EMEA, said the company will engage more closely with small business owners and entrepreneurs in the country, and offer more tools and support to help them build a powerful online presence and grow their business.
As of 2018, GoDaddy is the world's largest Web host by market share, with over 72 million registered domains.
In SA, the Arizona-headquartered company is taking on the likes of Afrihost and MWeb. Globally, the company's rivals include Amazon Web Services and Google, among others.
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