WordPress.com Offers Incentives to Google Domains Customers in Bid for Market Share
WordPress.com is making a strong bid for Google Domains customers after the product was sold to Squarespace in a deal reportedly worth $180 million. To entice customers to switch, WordPress.com is offering to pay transfer fees and provide an additional year of registration for the first million domains moved from Google Domains. In addition, WordPress.com guarantees the same pricing or lower for over 400 top-level domains.
Squarespace, the new owner of Google Domains, has committed to honoring the renewal prices set by Google Domains for 12 months but will set its own prices after this period. Squarespace CEO Anthony Casalena revealed in an interview that his company has been using similar infrastructure to Google’s Cloud DNS product and has been reselling Google Workspace for almost a decade. With the acquisition of Google Domains, Squarespace aims to cross-sell website packages to its incoming domain customers. Approximately 10 million domains are up for grabs in the transfer of customers.
Casalena explained that being a reseller of Google Workspace played a significant role in Google’s decision to offer the domains to Squarespace. This, along with Squarespace’s infrastructure and expertise in managing domain-related services, made them a suitable candidate for the acquisition.
Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg expressed disappointment on Twitter, stating that he wished Google had made the process more competitive. Mullenweg also expressed concern about having a large number of domains going to a proprietary CMS.
WordPress.com has been gradually expanding its offerings to become a one-stop shop for users’ website needs. Recently, the company made its monetization features available for free, making the platform more appealing to creators who are just starting out online. However, many people are still unaware that they can buy domains from a registrar and host their websites elsewhere. WordPress.com needs to work on raising awareness among prospective customers about their domain services.
Moving to a new registrar can be daunting for users who are unfamiliar with the process and fear negatively impacting their online presence. Google Domains customers will be forced to switch to a new registrar after the sale closes later this year. WordPress.com’s offer of paying transfer fees and providing an additional year of registration is compelling, especially if they can position their domains as an independent service.
In conclusion, WordPress.com is aggressively targeting Google Domains customers by offering incentives to switch. With Squarespace taking over Google Domains, WordPress.com sees an opportunity to attract customers looking for alternative domain registrar options. By guaranteeing competitive pricing and providing additional benefits, WordPress.com aims to secure a significant market share in the domain registration industry.
