GoDaddy, the domain registrar and web hosting company, headquartered in the US, is looking at opening data centers in India in order to be closer to its local customers. Currently, their data centers are in Singapore but according to Nikhil Arora, managing director, GoDaddy India, they have an idea of opening an Indian data center since many customers prefer local presence.
Roughly 50% of the company’s new customers are coming from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and that is the main reason for the focus on a local data center. “We are focusing on becoming the trusted partners of influencers and professionals like web designers. A web designer has an average of 20 to 30 customers,” Arora said.
They hope to make a push into these local markets with influencers like web designers with small businesses and entrepreneurs relying on the GoDaddy looks to manage their online branding and provide India-specific web hosting packages. Their profit has doubled over the last three years in India and it houses 1,000 employees locally. According to the National Internet Exchange of India, GoDaddy has over 40% market share in the .IN domain with over a million customers in the country.
According to Arora, data protection, privacy, and security are important issues and will continue to be at the core of their decision making today and in the future. It is stated that in the past, cyber-crime police in India have expressed concerns since they face delays in receiving information from companies like GoDaddy on those involved in cyber-crime.
