Uni Joins GoDaddy

Exciting news arrived 3 days ago. GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE: GDDY) announced it is acquiring Uniregistry’s domain registrar and marketplace businesses, including a 350K domain portfolio.Frank Schilling, The Founder and CEO of Uniregistry, announced the same news from Twitter as well:

Incredibly proud to announce the acquisition of my baby #Uniregistry by #godaddy .. a truly exciting day! 🥰 pic.twitter.com/p697uOaRdu

— Frank Schilling (@Frank_Schilling) February 11, 2020

Personally, this is a great success for Frank and his team and all I can say is a big CONGRATULATIONS.

There was almost nothing but his portfolio 10 years ago. It started with InternetTraffic.com, then DomainNameSales.com joined to the market. Then Uniregistry arrived as a registry of lots of new gTLDs and of course as a registrar. Then, DomainNameSales.com transforms to Uniregistry Market. Then other services arrived, and 3 days ago, the company got acquired by the biggest guy in the market.

During this transformation, I had the opportunity to work with DomainNameSales.com and Uniregistry as a Domain Broker for almost 4 years and I appreciate for that opportunity.

So, how is this acquisition going to effect the domain market? Here are my thoughts:

• Uniregistry has very talented Domain Brokers who do much more than forwarding e-mails to the interested parties. So, these brokers will have the access of a huge portfolio now and that may result with much more sales in the market.
• Personally, I believe GoDaddy’s user interface is one of the worst ones out there. Everything is complicated. On the otherside, Uniregistry’s user interface is one of the best and I believe GoDaddy will/should take advantages from it.
• Acquisition includes 350K domains of Frank Schilling and some of them were priced more than its worth. I assume, these domains will hit the market with cheaper prices.
• GoDaddy hasn’t been very active when it comes to new gTLDs. They now have lots of strings coming from Uniregistry. We might see more ads about these OR, we might see some acquisitions by other big guys like Donuts.
• Uniregistry has some sellers who are exclusively working with them in the Uniregistry Market. So the distribution of these exclusive domains will be wider than ever. Good for sellers!
• GoDaddy is a multinational company with lots of offices and people all around the world. It will help Uniregistry’s distribution to these countries as well.

I hope this acquisition brings fresh breath to the market and the industry.