Go Daddy set to forge its own passage to India

Go Daddy is set to join a growing list of big online players plying their trade in India.

The web-hosting giant today announced that it had identified the BRIC giant as “a priority market” for its “global expansion” and has already hired its first ever international executive to run operations in the country.

The company has appointed Rajiv Sodhi as Managing Director of Go Daddy India. The former Microsoft executive will be responsible for overseeing Go Daddy’s expansion into the India market and is reportedly in the process of hiring a team.

“We knew we needed an experienced technologist, with a deep understanding of India’s culture and our Go Daddy brand of customer service. Rajiv’s 14 years of experience in the technology space brings all these qualities to our business, as well as his strategic view on how to help grow online businesses,” said Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman. “Together, our vision is to expand our footprint in India, hire locally and serve customers in India with people who speak their language.”

Sodhi is from Gurgaon, India and has an MBA and a Bachelor of Engineering, specialising in Computer Science. Prior to Go Daddy, he worked in various roles at Microsoft India dating back to 2001. He recently held the positions of Director of SMB and Cloud Business, both with Microsoft. Sodhi’s expertise is with small-to-midsize businesses looking to develop or enhance their online presence.

He says it Go Daddy’s “understanding of small business needs, their capacity to serve a large customer base and their commitment to first-rate service” that drew him to the company.

“Go Daddy offers a one-stop shop for small businesses and consumers who are looking to grow their businesses on the Internet. From a simple domain name, or a mobile website, to cloud services, Go Daddy has it all.”

Go Daddy follows in the footsteps of other big online players, such as Amazon, who have ventured into India in recent times. The ecommerce giant opened online shopping aggregator Junglee in February.

India is one of the world’s great untapped countries. At present, only around 10% of the country’s population is online, although Google predicts that this number is set to explode in the next couple of years. The internet giant reckons that at least 300-million Indians will be online come 2014.

A large part of India’s predicted growth is expected to come out of the high-speed wireless networks that carriers are in the process of rolling out countrywide.

In fact, Indian mobile web usage is on the verge of overtaking desktop usage.

“This is the dawn of a new era for Go Daddy,” Sodhi said. “In the months ahead, Go Daddy India will be ramping up our investments in people, assets and resources.”