Quick Facts / Company Snapshot
- Full Legal Name: GoDaddy Inc.
- Stock Ticker: GDDY (New York Stock Exchange)
- Headquarters Address: 100 S. Mill Ave, Suite 1600, Tempe, Arizona 85281
- Chief Executive Officer: Aman Bhutani
- Total Revenue (2024): $4,482.7 million
- Total Bookings (2024): $4.6 billion
- Net Income (2024): $1,396 million
- Operating Income (2024): $768 million
- Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities (2024): $1,288 million
- Unlevered Free Cash Flow (2024): $1,506 million
- Total Assets (2024): $6,975 million
- Total Customers: 20.5 million
- Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) (2024): $220
- Employees: Approximately 5,900 worldwide
- Domains Under Management: Approximately 85 million
- Registered Domains (Corporate): Portfolio of more than 200,000 domains
- Top-Level Domains (TLDs) Offered: More than 400
- Share Repurchases (Cumulative): 39.4 million shares repurchased for $4.0 billion
- Incorporation: Delaware
Company Overview
GoDaddy Inc. stands as a global leader serving a vast market of entrepreneurs, dedicated to developing and delivering easy-to-use solutions as a comprehensive one-stop shop provider. The company operates with a mission to empower entrepreneurs everywhere, striving to make opportunity more inclusive for all. GoDaddy is passionate about its mission, honoring the trust entrepreneurs place in the company to transform their ideas into something meaningful. The company serves a diverse range of customers, including small businesses, individuals, organizations, developers, designers, and domain investors.
The company’s vision focuses on radically shifting the global economy toward life-fulfilling entrepreneurial ventures. GoDaddy’s strategy helps customers navigate their journey as small business owners by evolving and building products that meet unique needs at various stages. This customer journey is viewed as non-linear and iterative, supported by solutions designed to assist across all aspects of business.
GoDaddy organizes its support around the “Entrepreneur’s Wheel,” which addresses three key focus areas:
- Identity: This includes intimate brand considerations such as company name, domain name, logo, and email address.
- Presence: This involves creating and managing an online presence, connecting with customers through website building, hosting, marketplace syndication, social media, and search engine visibility.
- Commerce: This enables customers to sell directly online, in-person, and across multiple channels like marketplaces and social platforms, integrating dynamic information everywhere they engage.
GoDaddy prides itself on its ability to evolve its global brand into an innovative customer-focused software company. The company leverages the “fewer things better” mantra to drive transformation, powered by innovative data, AI capabilities, and seamless intuitive experiences.
Business Segments
GoDaddy reports its operational results through two primary segments: Core Platform and Applications and Commerce. These segments reflect the way the company manages and evaluates its business performance.
Core Platform
The Core Platform segment consists of products that enable customers to establish a digital identity and manage their online presence. This segment is foundational to the company’s ecosystem.
- Segment Revenue (2024): $2,976.3 million
- Percentage of Total Revenue: 66.4% (Calculated: $2,976.3m / $4,482.7m)
- Operational Scope: This segment primarily consists of the sales of domain registrations and renewals, aftermarket domain sales, website hosting products, and website security products. It specifically includes products not included in the proprietary software products of the Applications and Commerce segment.
- Strategic Profile: Core Platform serves as the entry point for many customers, offering essential services like domain names and hosting that form the backbone of an online identity. It leverages GoDaddy’s position as the world’s leading domain registrar to capture customers early in their entrepreneurial journey.
Applications and Commerce (A&C)
The Applications and Commerce segment comprises proprietary software and commerce products designed to help customers build their businesses and transact with their customers.
- Segment Revenue (2024): $1,506.4 million
- Percentage of Total Revenue: 33.6% (Calculated: $1,506.4m / $4,482.7m)
- Operational Scope: This segment primarily consists of sales of products containing proprietary software, notably website building products, as well as commerce products and third-party email and productivity solutions. It includes offerings like Websites + Marketing, Managed WordPress, and GoDaddy Payments.
- Strategic Profile: A&C focuses on growth through software solutions that simplify business management. It includes AI-powered experiences like GoDaddy Airo and comprehensive commerce solutions that enable sales across online and offline channels.
History and Evolution
GoDaddy celebrated its 10-year anniversary as a public company in April 2024. Over the past decade, the company has focused on attracting high-intent customers and delivering value, serving millions of customers worldwide.
- 2024 Milestones: The year 2024 was marked by strong innovation, execution, and financial results, culminating in the company joining the S&P 500, a milestone validating its consistent performance.
- Strategic Transformation: Under the leadership of CEO Aman Bhutani, who marked his 5-year anniversary in 2024, the company has pursued an ambition to evolve from a global brand into an innovative customer-focused software company.
- Operational Shift: The company has undergone a transformation to an evidence-based, decision-making culture, reducing “HIPPO” (highest paid person’s opinion) decisions and focusing on data instrumentation and hypothesis-based experimentation.
- Financial Evolution: Since 2020, GoDaddy has demonstrated robust financial trajectory. Unlevered Free Cash Flow grew from $825 million in 2020 to $1.5 billion in 2024, representing a five-year CAGR of 16%. Net income improved significantly from a loss of $(494) million in 2020 to a profit of $1,396 million in 2024.
- Capital Allocation History: As part of a $4.0 billion multi-year share repurchase program authorized in 2022, the company repurchased 39.4 million shares through 2024, achieving a 23% gross reduction in fully diluted shares outstanding.
Products and Services
GoDaddy offers a wide array of products classified into three main revenue categories.
1. Domains
GoDaddy is the world’s leading domain registrar, managing a massive portfolio of domain names.
- Revenue (2024): $2,007.8 million
- Percentage of Total Revenue: 44.8% (Calculated: $2,007.8m / $4,482.7m)
- Profile:
- Primary Registrations: GoDaddy offers domain name search and registration for available domain names across more than 400 top-level domains (TLDs), including generic TLDs (e.g., .com, .net) and country-code TLDs (e.g., .co, .uk).
- Aftermarket: The company operates a large domain aftermarket platform, processing aftermarket or secondary domain name sales. It maintains a portfolio of registered domains for the purpose of selling via secondary markets.
- Domain Add-ons: Features like Domain Privacy and Protection are offered to keep customer information private and secure domains from hijacking or accidental loss.
- GoDaddy Registry: A backend registry technology platform supporting approximately 200 TLDs.
2. Hosting and Security
This category provides the infrastructure and protection necessary for an online presence.
- Revenue (2024): $1,327.9 million
- Percentage of Total Revenue: 29.6% (Calculated: $1,327.9m / $4,482.7m)
- Profile:
- Hosting: Offers shared website hosting, Virtual Private Servers (VPS), and Managed WordPress hosting. Shared hosting is the most popular product, while VPS offers greater control and performance.
- Security: A comprehensive suite of tools including SSL certificates, malware scanning, site backups, and web application firewalls (WAF). The security portfolio includes products branded under Sucuri.
3. Applications and Commerce
This category includes software and payment solutions that help customers build, manage, and grow their ventures.
- Revenue (2024): $1,147.0 million
- Percentage of Total Revenue: 25.6% (Calculated: $1,147.0m / $4,482.7m)
- Profile:
- Websites + Marketing: A mobile-optimized online tool for building professional websites and online stores with integrated marketing features.
- Managed WooCommerce Stores: Solutions combining WordPress flexibility with WooCommerce power.
- GoDaddy Payments: A payment facilitator enabling acceptance of major cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) with no long-term contracts.
- Point-of-Sale (POS): Hardware offerings including the GoDaddy Smart Terminal and Card Reader for in-person transactions.
- Productivity: Includes professional business email (often partnered with Microsoft 365) and marketing tools like GoDaddy Studio for content creation.
Brand Portfolio
GoDaddy utilizes a master brand strategy alongside specific sub-brands and acquisitions to serve various market segments.
GoDaddy (Master Brand)
- Profile: The flagship global brand serving small businesses, individuals, and organizations. It is synonymous with domain registration and website building for entrepreneurs.
GoDaddy Registry
- Profile: The wholesale arm of the business, operating registry services for TLDs and providing backend technology. It supports approximately 200 gTLDs.
GoDaddy Airo
- Profile: An AI-powered experience that proactively builds and grows businesses. It can generate logos, websites, email campaigns, and social media posts, leveraging generative AI to remove friction for customers.
GoDaddy Payments
- Profile: The dedicated brand for payment processing solutions, offering “Payable Domains” and “Tap to Pay” on mobile to lower barriers for small businesses to accept payments.
GoDaddy Studio
- Profile: A mobile-first content creation tool that helps customers create professional visual content for social media, marketing, and logos.
Uniregistry
- Profile: A domain registrar and aftermarket platform integrated into GoDaddy’s ecosystem, providing tools for domain investors.
Sucuri
- Profile: A web security brand offering products like website backups, malware scanning, and removal services.
Poynt
- Profile: A commerce brand associated with smart terminal technology and payment infrastructure, acquired to bolster GoDaddy’s offline commerce capabilities.
Pagely
- Profile: A brand focused on premium Managed WordPress hosting services, catering to more technical users and developers.
Geographical Presence
GoDaddy has a broad international footprint, serving customers in over 100 markets.
1. United States
The U.S. is the primary market, hosting the corporate headquarters and significant infrastructure.
- Revenue (2024): $2,974.7 million
- Percentage of Total Revenue: 66.4% (Calculated: $2,974.7m / $4,482.7m)
- Profile:
- Headquarters: Tempe, Arizona.
- Key Offices: Kirkland, Washington; Hiawatha, Iowa; Santa Clara, California.
- Data Centers: Phoenix, Arizona; Virginia.
2. International
GoDaddy serves a vast international customer base, with localized products and support.
- Revenue (2024): $1,508.0 million
- Percentage of Total Revenue: 33.6% (Calculated: $1,508.0m / $4,482.7m)
- Profile:
- Key Offices: Sofia, Bulgaria; Karlsruhe and Cologne, Germany; Iasi and Bucharest, Romania; Belgrade, Serbia; Beeston and Woking, United Kingdom.
- Data Centers: France, Germany, The Netherlands, Singapore.
- Strategic Focus: The company localizes core products and marketing efforts, evidenced by the rollout of GoDaddy Payments in Canada in 2024.
Financial Performance Analysis
GoDaddy has delivered consistent financial growth and operational efficiency over a multi-year period.
- Revenue Trend: Total revenue grew from $3.3 billion in 2020 to $4.5 billion in 2024.
- Bookings Growth: Total bookings increased from $3.8 billion in 2020 to $4.6 billion in 2024.
- Profitability Turnaround: Net Income shifted dramatically from a loss of $(494) million in 2020 to a profit of $1,396 million in 2024.
- Cash Flow Strength: Unlevered Free Cash Flow (uFCF) grew consistently from $825 million in 2020 to $1,506 million in 2024, reflecting a 5-year CAGR of 16%.
- ARPU Expansion: Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) increased steadily each year, rising from $170 in 2020 to $220 in 2024.
Profit and Loss Analysis
Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2024
- Total Revenue:$4,482.7 million
- Domains: $2,007.8 million
- Hosting and Security: $1,327.9 million
- Applications and Commerce: $1,147.0 million
- Operating Expenses:
- Technology and Development: $672.8 million (Decreased by 9.3% YoY)
- Marketing and Advertising: $402.8 million (Decreased by 2.2% YoY)
- Customer Care: $258.7 million (Decreased by 12.3% YoY)
- General and Administrative: $378.1 million (Increased by 12.7% YoY)
- Depreciation and Amortization: $171.3 million
- Operating Income: $768 million
- Net Income:$1,396 million
- Note: Net income for 2024 included a significant income tax benefit of $865.7 million related to the release of valuation allowance on US deferred tax assets.
- Normalized EBITDA (NEBITDA): $1,376 million
Balance Sheet Analysis
As of December 31, 2024
- Total Assets:$6,975 million
- Cash and Cash Equivalents: $825 million
- Goodwill: $2,905.7 million
- Intangible Assets, Net: $820.6 million
- Total Liabilities:$7,176 million (Calculated: Total Assets $6,975m – Equity $(201)m)
- Total Debt: $3,889 million
- Deferred Revenue (Current): $1,894.6 million
- Deferred Revenue (Non-current): $903.8 million
- Total Stockholders’ Equity (Deficit):$(201) million
- Note: The deficit is primarily influenced by treasury stock repurchases.
Cash Flow Analysis
Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2024
- Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities:$1,288 million
- Driven by net income adjusted for non-cash items like depreciation ($171.3 million) and equity-based compensation ($248.5 million), offset by the deferred tax benefit.
- Net Cash Used in Investing Activities:$(73) million
- Capital Expenditures (Cash Paid): $53 million
- Business Acquisitions: $(18) million (Net of cash acquired)
- Net Cash Used in Financing Activities:$(1,232) million
- Repurchase of Common Stock: $(1,217.3) million
- Repayment of Term Loans: $(31) million
- Unlevered Free Cash Flow (uFCF): $1,506 million
Board of Directors and Leadership Team
Executive Leadership
- Aman Bhutani: Chief Executive Officer and Director. Joined GoDaddy with the ambition to evolve the brand into an innovative customer-focused software company.
- Mark McCaffrey: Chief Financial Officer.
- Phontip Palitwanon: Chief Accounting Officer.
Board of Directors
- Brian H. Sharples: Chairman of the Board of Directors.
- Aman Bhutani: Director.
- Herald Y. Chen: Director.
- Caroline Donahue: Director.
- Mark Garrett: Director.
- Leah Sweet: Director.
- Praharsha Smith: Director.
- Srinivas Tallapragada: Director.
- Sigal Zarmi: Director.
Subsidiaries, Associates, Joint Ventures
GoDaddy operates through various subsidiaries that facilitate its global operations, registry services, and payment processing.
Key Subsidiaries:
- Desert Newco, LLC: A primary operating subsidiary.
- GoDaddy.com, LLC: The primary customer-facing entity for domain and hosting sales.
- GoDaddy Operating Company, LLC: Involved in operational management.
- GoDaddy Payments, LLC: Handles payment facilitation and commerce transactions.
- Registry Services, LLC: Manages the registry backend and TLD operations.
- Sucuri, Inc.: Specializes in website security products.
- Poynt, Inc.: Focuses on commerce and POS technology.
- Pagely, Inc.: Provides premium Managed WordPress hosting services.
Physical Properties
GoDaddy utilizes a mix of leased office spaces and data center facilities to support its global workforce and technical infrastructure.
Headquarters:
- Location: 100 S. Mill Ave, Suite 1600, Tempe, Arizona 85281.
Key Office Locations (United States):
- Tempe, Arizona
- Kirkland, Washington
- Hiawatha, Iowa
- Santa Clara, California
Key Office Locations (International):
- Sofia, Bulgaria
- Karlsruhe, Germany
- Cologne, Germany
- Iasi, Romania
- Bucharest, Romania
- Belgrade, Serbia
- Beeston, United Kingdom
- Woking, United Kingdom
Data Centers:
- United States: Phoenix, Arizona; Virginia.
- International: France, Germany, The Netherlands, Singapore.
Segment-wise Performance
Fiscal Year 2024 Performance by Segment
Core Platform Segment
- Revenue: $2,976.3 million
- Year-over-Year Growth: 3.0% (Calculated from 2023 revenue of $2,889.3 million)
- Performance Drivers: Growth was primarily driven by continued strong customer retention rates and the success of bundling strategic products. The segment saw a 4.6% increase in domains revenue, highlighting the stability of the primary registration and aftermarket business.
Applications and Commerce (A&C) Segment
- Revenue: $1,506.4 million
- Year-over-Year Growth: 14.5% (Calculated from 2023 revenue of $1,315.7 million)
- Performance Drivers: This segment experienced double-digit growth driven by the adoption of GoDaddy Airo and the expansion of commerce solutions. The segment’s growth reflects successful monetization of new AI capabilities and increased uptake of productivity solutions like email and marketing tools.
Founders
GoDaddy celebrated its 10-year anniversary as a public company in April 2024, marking a decade of serving millions of customers. While the current report focuses on the leadership of CEO Aman Bhutani and the strategic direction of the current management team, it highlights the company’s origins in serving the needs of small businesses and entrepreneurs. The company operates with a founder’s mindset, emphasizing that its customers’ journeys are non-linear and require iterative support. (Note: Specific founder names like Bob Parsons are not explicitly mentioned in the provided 2024 Annual Report source text, so per strict instructions, only disclosed information is included.)
Shareholding Pattern
GoDaddy Inc. has a diverse shareholder base consisting of institutional investors and public shareholders.
- Shares Outstanding: As of February 14, 2025, there were 141,355,906 shares of Class A common stock outstanding.
- Share Repurchases: The company actively returns value to shareholders through buybacks. In 2024, GoDaddy repurchased 14.9 million shares for an aggregate price of $1.2 billion.
- Market Value: As of June 30, 2024, the aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates was approximately $19.7 billion.
Parent
GoDaddy Inc. is the ultimate parent company and registrant. It is a Delaware corporation that acts as a holding company for its operating subsidiaries, including Desert Newco, LLC.
Investments and Capital Expenditure Plans
GoDaddy prioritizes investments that drive product innovation, platform modernization, and global scale.
- Capital Expenditures (2024): The company spent $53 million on capital expenditures (cash paid).
- Strategic Priorities:
- Artificial Intelligence: Significant investment in Generative AI (GenAI) to power GoDaddy Airo and enhance customer support efficiency.
- Platform Modernization: Continued migration of applications and services to the public cloud (AWS) to improve scalability and performance.
- Product Development: Investing in “fewer things better,” focusing on high-impact products like GoDaddy Payments and the unified software platform.
- Acquisitions: The company allocated $18 million (net of cash acquired) for business acquisitions in 2024 to bolster its capabilities.
Future Strategy
GoDaddy’s future strategy revolves around becoming faster, smarter, and more deeply integrated into the lives of its customers.
- AI Integration: The company plans to deploy evolving technologies such as generative AI and agentic AI across its offerings to remove friction and unlock customer potential. GoDaddy Airo is a central pillar of this strategy, automating the creation of logos, websites, and marketing campaigns.
- Commerce Expansion: A key focus is expanding “Commerce everywhere,” enabling customers to sell online and in-person seamlessly. This includes growing the adoption of GoDaddy Payments and Point-of-Sale devices.
- Profitable Growth: The management targets a convergence of growth and margin, aiming to maximize free cash flow over the long term while delivering exceptional shareholder value.
- Global Localization: Continuing to localize products and marketing efforts in international markets to serve entrepreneurs worldwide effectively.
Key Strengths
- Market Leadership: The world’s largest domain registrar with roughly 85 million domains under management and 20+ million customers.
- High Brand Awareness: GoDaddy is one of the most recognized Internet brands in the U.S., aided by sustained marketing investment, with $402.8 million spent in 2024.
- Recurring Revenue Model: A substantial portion of revenue is recurring, driven by subscription-based products like domains and hosting, providing financial visibility.
- Strong Cash Flow: Generating $1.5 billion in unlevered free cash flow in 2024 demonstrates robust cash generation capabilities.
- Integrated Ecosystem: The ability to offer a “one-stop shop” covering domains, hosting, security, marketing, and payments creates high switching costs and customer stickiness.
Key Challenges and Risks
- Competitive Market: The markets for domains, hosting, and software are highly fragmented and competitive, with competitors ranging from huge tech giants to niche providers.
- Technology Evolution: The rapid evolution of AI and cloud technologies requires constant investment. Failure to adapt or effectively deploy new technologies like GenAI could harm competitiveness.
- Debt Levels: The company carries a substantial debt load of $3.9 billion, which requires significant cash flow for servicing and may limit flexibility in adverse economic conditions.
- Cybersecurity Risks: As a provider of online infrastructure, GoDaddy faces constant risks of cyberattacks, system failures, and security breaches that could damage its reputation and liability.
- Regulatory Environment: Increasing regulation regarding the Internet, privacy (e.g., GDPR), and AI governance in various jurisdictions poses compliance challenges and potential costs.
Conclusion and Strategic Outlook
GoDaddy Inc. has successfully transitioned from a domain-centric business into a comprehensive software and commerce platform for entrepreneurs. Its 2024 financial results underscore the success of this strategy, characterized by solid revenue growth, expanding margins, and impressive cash flow generation. By leveraging its massive scale in domains as a low-cost customer acquisition channel, GoDaddy is effectively cross-selling higher-value software and commerce products.
Looking ahead, the company is betting big on Artificial Intelligence with GoDaddy Airo to further simplify the entrepreneurial journey. The strategic pivot towards “fewer things better” and the focus on profitable growth suggest a disciplined approach to capital allocation and operational efficiency. With a strong balance sheet, a loyal customer base of over 20 million, and a clear roadmap for AI and commerce integration, GoDaddy is well-positioned to maintain its leadership in the digital services market for small businesses.
Official Site: godaddy.com
FAQ Section:
- What was GoDaddy’s total revenue in 2024? GoDaddy reported a total revenue of $4,482.7 million for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024.
- How many customers does GoDaddy have? As of December 31, 2024, GoDaddy serves approximately 20.5 million customers worldwide.
- What are GoDaddy’s main business segments? GoDaddy operates in two main segments: the Core Platform (Domains, Hosting, Security) and Applications and Commerce (Proprietary software, Marketing, Payments).
- Is GoDaddy profitable? Yes, GoDaddy reported a Net Income of $1,396 million for 2024, significantly aided by a one-time income tax benefit.
- What is GoDaddy Airo? GoDaddy Airo is an AI-powered experience launched to proactively build logos, websites, email campaigns, and social media posts for customers.
- Does GoDaddy pay dividends? GoDaddy does not currently pay dividends on its common stock; it returns value primarily through share repurchases.
- What is GoDaddy’s Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)? In 2024, GoDaddy’s ARPU was $220, an increase from previous years.
Content is based on publicly available corporate filings, regulatory disclosures, annual reports, 10-K filings, Investor Relations materials, and direct mail communication with the company.
