Over 100,000 GoDaddy Domains Transferred Out Over SOPA Issue

Sites include GoDaddy.com , namecheap.com . Published on January 13th, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

The dust has settled and the GoDaddy boycott over SOPA has revealed the full extent of the domains that were transferred as a result of the boycott. According to stats tracked from RegistrarStats.com, over 100,000 domains were transferred under the initiative called ‘move your domain day’. The initiative was launched on December 22, 2011 and was led by several domain registrars, with Namcheap.com taking the lead.

But the stats also show something else; something which if true, suggests that GoDaddy got over 117,000 domains transferred in. If this is the case, it means that GoDaddy had a net gain of 17,000 domains, a very small amount for such a period for sure, but still significant to show that the initiative failed. It would seem that GoDaddy’s flip flop on the issue paid off because when they ultimately chose a side, they made it clear that they were against SOPA.

GoDaddy of course, isn’t the only registrar that took a position in favor of SOPA, but as the world’s biggest registrar, it became an easy target for those that were against the bill. For many in the industry, GoDaddy should have known better than to support a bill that effectively makes it no longer free to just ‘register’ a domain. It’s good to see that GoDaddy has changed its mind, and no doubt its transfer numbers in will increase even more in the coming weeks.

The battle against SOPA on the other hand, continues.