India is the biggest market for GoDaddy International in its emerging market space, said Laura Messerschmitt, President, of GoDaddy International Independents.
50 per cent of GoDaddy’s new international customers and $400 million in revenue come from emerging markets, she said.
Globally, the company has around 21 million customers and 82 million domains under management. With GoDaddy International - regions beyond the US, the company has 10 million customers. It recently launched GoDaddy Airo in India, an AI-powered solution to help small business owners establish their online presence.
“When we launched internationally in 2012, India held the distinction of being our first international market; it is also where we established our first international office. It is a critical market, both from a customer and employee perspective. Our AI solution, in a way, was tailor-made for the Indian market because it has around 48 million small businesses with many trying to go online,” she said.
GoDaddy found that 94 per cent of Indian small business owners view implementing AI in their businesses as yielding a positive impact on their bottom line.
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However, the top three reasons for not implementing AI are a lack of awareness of available solutions, an understanding of the benefits, potential costs, and time to implement these tools.
Selina Bieber, VP, of International Markets, at GoDaddy, noted, “We see this as a big opportunity for small businesses and entrepreneurs in India looking to unlock the power of digital and online platforms for their business. Internationally, the opportunity, especially in emerging markets, is more than elsewhere because a lot of the population has yet to come online.”
“We’re figuring out how to lower barriers to entry for these customers, markets, or audiences that don’t have the technical knowledge and need more affordable solutions. Making opportunity accessible to everyone is the value proposition for this product.”
Over a million customers have already “discovered” Airo, with the product being rolled out to GoDaddy’s English-speaking markets, including India.
“We’re poised to launch in over 90 additional countries in other languages besides English,” Messerschmitt added. “About half our population of customers is outside the US. We have $1.4 billion in revenue outside of the US and serve over 150 markets - from Africa to Asia to Latin America and North America. Our customer retention rate is over 85 per cent.”
GoDaddy Airo, using GoDaddy’s AI Domain Search tool, can recommend domain names with a description of the business. It can generate content, including logo designs, a fully built website with imagery and content to help the business attract customers, a professional email account, and an auto-generated custom product description for an online store.
“We have expansion efforts in Gurugram, Pune, and have remote workers here. What the Indian market and workforce can bring to our products and services is important because we’re building these services and products for these markets. By having local people in those markets, we can get better at delivering for those customers. ,” Messerschmitt said.
In Q2 2024, the company’s revenue stood at $1.1 billion. Its total bookings stood at $1.3 billion.
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