25 Jul 08 GoDaddy Canada begins accepting .ca domain name registrations but…
Yup, domain registrar giant GoDaddy is officially accepting .ca Canadian domain registrations as of today. This marks a major turning point for the .ca domain space. While there are several established Canadian .ca registrars, the arrival of GoDaddy into the .ca domaining arena is significant in no small part because GD is the biggest domain registrar out there.
On the surface, this may seem like a bad thing – I’m sure many of you are concerned that Bob Parsons and his domain (and web host, and TDNAM aftermarket service) will squeeze out all the smaller (but Canadian, eh!) registrars. Maybe not – case in point; many gTLD registrars thrived and even came onto the scene despite the GD domination of the ubiquitous .com / .net and .org space.
GD is hot off the heels of a somewhat well publicized registration fiasco with the .me extension when many registrants got confirmation emails for lucrative names such as kiss.me despite them already having been registered. GoDaddy came out bruised, but still successful on the .me launch. Not to mention the TDNAM Adam Dicker “insider bidding” conundrum…
Their .ca registration information pages (which go into detail about CIRA Canadian Presence Requirements) are well laid out… and very up front. Of course, there is the usual co-selling of their 101 related products when all you want to do is check out with your brand-spanking new .ca name, but this is part of their (highly successful) strategy to sell higher-margin products along with the domain name itself.
An interesting note, they compare themselves with their $12.99 per year .ca per registration fee to a few other Canadian registrars including Webnames.ca at 49.67, Register.ca at $29.75, CADomains.ca at $23.39, and LowCostDomains.ca at 17.33 per .ca domain registration year ; fair enough but they conveniently forgot 2 Canadian domain registrars with much more competitive rates namely:
MyID.ca who offer 1 year .ca registrations for $16.50 or less and Namespro.ca at $12.88 per year – yup … cheaper than GoDaddy, and both MyID and Namespro are Canadian companies.
So yes, in the end I will be sending some .ca registration business to GoDaddy Canada but I won’t be transferring away my domain portfolios at other Canadian registrars just yet. 
Fun times, eh? Competition is always a good thing as long as it stays healthy.
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Tags: .ca domains, Canadian domain names, CIRA, Domaining, GoDaddy Canada, MyID.ca, Namespro.ca, Web 2.0
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