WordPress.com Makes a Bid for Google Domains Customers, Offering 1 Million Free Transfers – WP Tavern

WordPress.com is making a powerful bid for Google Domains prospects after the the product was offered to Squarespace in a deal reportedly worthy $180 million. Shortly after the sale was introduced, WordPress.com pitched Google Domains customers, reminding the general public that the corporate can be a site registrar, however the name to motion didn’t embrace a lot incentive to modify.

This week WordPress.com is placing the warmth on with a brand new provide to pay switch charges and a further 12 months of registration for the primary million domains moved from Google Domains. WordPress.com can be guaranteeing Google Domains prospects the identical pricing or decrease for 400+ top-level domains.

“This may even apply to current WordPress.com prospects throughout most domains, that means that in lots of instances we’re reducing your costs.” Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg mentioned within the announcement this week.

“This isn’t a short lived factor. We’re dedicated to preserving area costs low, and can solely elevate them if our wholesale prices go up (we’ll run our domains enterprise like Costco).”

Squarespace has dedicated to honor the renewal costs beforehand set by Google Domains current prospects for 12 months however will set its personal costs after this time.

In an interview with The Verge, Squarespace CEO Anthony Casalena mentioned his firm is already utilizing plenty of the identical infrastructure Google is utilizing of their Cloud DNS product, having resold Google Workspace for nearly a decade. Squarespace presently employs 1,750 folks with income underneath a billion {dollars} this 12 months. Buying Google Domains offers the corporate the chance to cross-sell web site packages to its incoming area prospects. There are roughly 10 million domains up for grabs within the switch of consumers.

Casalena mentioned that being a reseller of Google Workspace was a significant component in Google’s resolution to supply the domains to Squarespace, along with having the infrastructure to handle the enterprise. This partially explains what was an in any other case bewildering deal that got here as a shock to the business:

First off — as soon as in a lifetime alternative for us. Extremely grateful that we had been chosen because the stewards of that enterprise. We weren’t asking them, like, ‘Hey, planning on shutting down domains or something?’ It wasn’t precisely outbound. I believe they made the choice that it’s not a enterprise that they had been going to be in. They usually contacted a few respectable events who might probably even tackle a enterprise of that dimension as a result of, once more, it’s not the code or the staff are transferring — it’s mainly the domains themselves and the internet hosting companies and the registrations, that type of factor. So that actually narrows it all the way down to the variety of corporations that might even assist that.

Then the opposite factor that was an enormous issue is we’ve been an enormous fan and massive reseller of Google Workspace for practically a decade now, which was essential to them, and we’re extremely refined in promoting Domains, promoting Google Workspace, servicing it, and managing that for thousands and thousands of individuals. So we had been capable of finding a transaction that labored for us. 

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg reacted to the deal on Twitter this week, saying that he was upset Google didn’t make it a extra aggressive course of.

“This may cost a little a ton of cash however I used to be bummed we didn’t even get a crack at this, my guess is Cloudflare, Godaddy, and Bluehost didn’t both—why Google didn’t make this a aggressive course of?” Mulleweng mentioned. “Regarding to have so many domains going to a proprietary CMS.”

WordPress.com has been slowly inching in the direction of changing into a one-stop store for customers’ web site wants. The corporate lately made its monetization features available for free, making the platform extra enticing to creators who’re simply beginning out on-line. Based mostly on the response to Mullenweg’s tweet, it appears many individuals are nonetheless not conscious that they’ll purchase their domains from a registrar and host their web sites elsewhere. If you’re simply listening to about WordPress.com’s domains, it’s pure to suppose they’re just for WordPress websites, so the corporate has some work to do in making potential prospects conscious.

Customers may be hesitant to maneuver to a brand new registrar once they don’t totally perceive the method and don’t wish to negatively impression their on-line presence. Within the case of Google Domains prospects, they’re transferring to a brand new registrar after the sale closes later this 12 months, whether or not they prefer it or not. WordPress.com’s deal is a compelling provide if they’ll higher place their domains as an unbiased service.