Go Daddy Targets India as a Priority Market for Its Global Expansion

NEW DELHI, India--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Go Daddy, the world's largest provider of Web hosting, domain name registrations and new SSL Certificates, today announced that India has been identified as a priority market for Go Daddy's global expansion. To support its growth plans, Go Daddy has appointed Rajiv Sodhi as Managing Director of Go Daddy India. Sodhi is the first-ever international executive appointed by Go Daddy and will be based near New Delhi, India. Sodhi will be responsible for overseeing Go Daddy's expansion into the India market and is already beginning the process of hiring a team.

“This is the dawn of a new era for Go Daddy”

"We knew we needed an experienced technologist, with a deep understanding of India's culture and our Go Daddy brand of customer service. Rajiv’s 14 years of experience in the technology space brings all these qualities to our business, as well as his strategic view on how to help grow online businesses," said Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman. "Together, our vision is to expand our footprint in India, hire locally and serve customers in India with people who speak their language."

Sodhi is from Gurgaon, India and has an MBA and a Bachelor of Engineering, specializing in Computer Science. Prior to Go Daddy, Sodhi worked in various roles at Microsoft India dating back to 2001. He recently held the positions of Director of SMB and Cloud Business, both with Microsoft. Sodhi's expertise is with small-to-midsize businesses looking to develop or enhance their online presence.

Go Daddy has a rich history of serving small-to-midsize businesses in the U.S. and other parts of the world by offering well-priced, feature-rich online products ideal for online storefronts and backed by 24/7 industry-best customer support. In fact, many small business customers consider Go Daddy their own IT department. Currently, Go Daddy has more than 10.3 million customers worldwide and more than 53 million domain names under management, the largest portfolio in the history of the Internet. Go Daddy has been offering .IN domain names, India's country code extension, since January 2009.

"Go Daddy's understanding of small business needs, their capacity to serve a large customer base and their commitment to first-rate service are the primary attributes that drew me to Go Daddy India," Sodhi explained. "Go Daddy offers a one-stop shop for small businesses and consumers who are looking to grow their businesses on the Internet. From a simple domain name, or a mobile website, to cloud services, Go Daddy has it all."

Go Daddy is based in Scottsdale, Ariz., USA. Internationally, it has data center facilities in Europe and Asia, as well as an office in Canada. India is expected to be Go Daddy's largest international office before the end of the year.

In 2011, Go Daddy received a growth investment from KKR, Silver Lake and TCV that was designed, in large part, to fuel the company’s international expansion.

Initial engagements in India are already underway. Last month, Go Daddy hosted two Web developer events in Chennai and Mumbai, India. Go Daddy Senior Director of Product Development Gomathi Rajesh spoke at both events, talking to a few hundred developers about various opportunities for online businesses in India, including ways to better leverage the Internet. It was a return home for Rajesh, who grew up in Chennai, India and has worked at Go Daddy's Ariz. headquarters for the last eight years.

"This is the dawn of a new era for Go Daddy," Sodhi said. "In the months ahead, Go Daddy India will be ramping up our investments in people, assets and resources."

To find out more about how to get online easily and affordably, visit in.GoDaddy.com

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About Go Daddy

Go Daddy is the world's largest domain name provider, Web hosting provider and new SSL provider, focused on helping small businesses grow larger. Go Daddy provides dozens of cloud-based services and is the largest worldwide mass-market hosting provider by annual revenue according to Tier1 Research (Mass-Market Hosting Report-Winter 2011) and is the #1 provider of net-new SSL certificates for 2011, according to the Netcraft, LTD Secure Server Survey. To learn more about the company, visit www.GoDaddy.com/PR.