To some degree I dislike that Namecheap is using this guy's personal activities to siphon clients away from his business....I might be pro-choice, and I'd be really angry if a competitor spread that info around as if it was relevant to my business practice.

That said I've long heard bad things about GoDaddy's business practices and have been turned off by their marketing practices. This elephant thing cements my thinking to stay far away from them. Will I run to Namecheap? Dunno, and that's the gamble they're taking.

Shocking video, I saw this earlier on today on Facebook. I don't think Namecheap should have done this though. Word travels fast on the web anyway, they sort of lose a little respect in doing this.

Just my opinion anyway!

GoGetta

It's dirty marketing, same as when it's done in politics, a smear campaign. It's not like everyone at namecheap is a vegetarian so their concern for animals rings hollow and insincere.

I don't agree with hunting elephants but it doesn't make me want to use namecheap either. A lot of people do things I don't agree with, I can't boycott them all.

I'll stick with godaddy, I prefer the godaddy girls over desperate advertising.

I think NameCheap is doing a great job and the fact they did this with that video is brilliant, afterall don't we learn that smear campaigns work every time there are elections?

Personally I cannot stand Godaddy after what they did to me. I had all my domains on manual renew and they changed the settings in my account to auto renew. That's a fact because everytime I purchased a new domain or renewed a domain in the past I always went into the control panel and made sure it was set to manual renew.

Way to go NameCheap!

If Godaddy didn't want this to be public why did they shoot a video of it? It already made the news and anyone here would use the news media to strengthen their own position over their competitors. Marketers do it all the time so I don't know why everyone is so up in arms over this. Namecheap did not do anything wrong, they just made you aware of something they do not agree with that was already in the news.

Not to mention, news stations who report the news use the stories to sell news papers, magazines, and get viewers to their tv channel so what's so different about Namecheap doing what they did?

These kind of marketing tactics are quite common in the corporate world.

I am not sure about the right or wrong part, but I REALLY like the "I am writing to present you with PETA's first ever Scummiest CEO of the Year Award..." part.

If he's willing to have his picture taken in front of an elephant he killed, then he should be willing to accept the consequences.

I wonder how many people this would actually sway though. Animals get killed all the time.

This sort of move occurs all the time in the corporate world, dirty or not. And sometimes without hearing the other side of the story, it's easy to just rush to a snap judgment without knowing all the facts - in Parsons' defense though, there seems to be a mitigating factor, as explained at the end of the video.

In general that's not the sort of tactic I would approve of - however - if the CEO of GoDaddy really did post the video himself on a public site such a Youtube then I guess he has to accept that he has given his competitors ammunition (pun intended) to shoot him with.

Animal cruelty was the last thing on their mind when they made this move.

Try this,

google godaddy charity and namecheap charity, what are the results?

I think you'll find that godaddy easily wins this one.

Since when has namecheap ever done anything positive? My results came up empty, it's an insincere attempt to grab business. Anybody with any intelligence should be able to see right through what they are doing.

Also, before jumping into over-reaction mode. It's easy to sit in our nice suburban worlds and criticize but you do realize that those elephants are actually a huge problem for the people who live there.

Those big 'ol cute zoo attractions eat and destroy crops. If a coyote is killing livestock it's shot, it's a similar situation.

Try living in one of those villages and tell me how you feel about those elephants while your family goes hungry. You might be singing a different tune.

If this were a case of poaching it would be a different story but it's something that is allowed and controlled by the local government.

We can complain about underhanded tactics all day long, but they work. If the GoDaddy founder is shooting elephants, well shame on him; can people who buy 1000's of .infos a month afford to be outraged? Probably not!

It's probably a good marketing move, they aren't in the personality and respect business really... they sell commodities.

Namecheap V GoDaddy!

FIGHT!

Stupid way to get filmed in such a high profile company / position.

Stupid way to cash in on someone elses stupidity...

But hey, that is the internet!

Maybe Bob will crash his Nascar into Namecheaps Datacenter to get his own back and video it!

Think the donate to the elephants is good, but why restrict it to 10 names only and for only such a short period?

A years worth of donations would make a BIG difference to the charity!

The question should have been - Was this the stupdist thing ever by the GD ceo? Yes and yes. Yes to do it and even more stupid to brag about it publicly. Been using Namecheap for quite a while but I've been meaning to move some of my old domains from GD anyway and this just seals the deal.

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13 transferred with more to go

Do not get it. I like elephants but how are elephants connected to your registrar choice.

Bob Parsons chose to publicize his actions and connect it with his business via the GoDaddy hats. I can't fault Namecheap for trying to take advantage of the fact that so many people will find what Parsons did objectionable.

Wow, such flagrant public "boasting" about your thirst for blood sure is a risky marketing strategy when your clientele are likely to be divided in their opinions and tolerances of such stuff.

I'd think, however, that as a reasonably smart (if not somewhat distasteful) guy, he'll be well aware of this, and would (or should) have anticipated his competitors doing exactly what Namecheap have done, here. Fair game to Namecheap.

Coming soon: pics of GD CEO being proudly "showered with ivory" - just because he can.

Personally, I feel Parson's stunt with the elephant was tasteless. Though, it was on par with the rest of his personality...

Namecheap's stunt is also a bit tacky - but smart. This is a good offer, it's riding on the publicity of Parson's misadventures and will surely bring lots of customers to Namecheap.

Think about it: Many people might have been on the verge of leaving GoDaddy for a while, and now it's a good move to give them that final push. If a giant competitor of your business is losing customers, they will surely go to someone else. Why not make it your business?

He shot it legally and as the video clearly showed, the meat was much needed. I'm not seeing a problem here.

I can't believe my eyes what people can do for competition and making money.
Come on i don't believe a work, and that elephant is FAKE!!!

It appears this is a case of a competitor trying to take advantage of both political correctness, and probably some supporter ignorance as pointed out by christopher jon.

To take an opposing viewpoint to most of the posts here, GoDaddy has been controversial in many of their ads, so why would this be a suprise? Polarization has been a well known and tested marketing tactic for many, many years. Now if they start taking advantage of it with some factual data about the destruction wild elephants cause as opposed the warm and fuzzy PETA concepts, they could well have a winner on their hands.

And as an aside, GoDaddy has been pretty aggressive in their marketing. As such, they must have balanced out the number of people who would be offended as opposed to those that either don't care or would support what was being done. So the number of people deciding to move their accounts has most likely been taken into account before releasing the video.

[EDIT] It is also interesting to note that quite a number of comments against the video could be taken as showing how effective the "animal rights" marketing campaigns have been.

Marvin

That's great to me. I already did dislike GoDaddy due to their slimy business tactics and this just settles it for me that I will not want to do business with them and their CEO.

If I can get a discount to release the only domain I had the bad idea to sign with them forever... more power to Namecheap.

By the way Namecheap services are stellar. Never had a problem with them. I never even had to contact their customer support once because of that.

Hey! "actually live decently with all other life forms that have every right to exist and among ourselves" That does not preclude eating a good steak! The ones raised on grass are even tastier!

Really a hard thing to decide on. I never liked godady anyway but damn this makes me like them less. I'm no tree hugger but anyone who kills animals is an idiot, kill humans they are far more harmful to the planet...

It looks to me like the food is needed there and I'm glad they were able to eat the meat.

In the USA there are more Hunters in the 5 biggest hunting states than there are US soldiers. Hunting has always been and always will be legal. There are places in this world where it is the only source of food. If we did not allow hunting of animals in the US, the deer population alone would overtake many of the populated areas.

As a person who respects animals and loves elephants this makes me want to stop doing business with godaddy. I had no idea and probably would not have known if they had not used this marketing campaign.

I prefer not to do business with people who do things I think/feel are "wrong". Sometimes that is very hard to accomplish and it's always a matter of "how much to I really despise what they are doing?" vs. "how easy is it to NOT do business with them?"

I have hosting and domain names with godaddy, some of which I just renewed for 3 years so I will not be able to stop doing business with them easily in the near future. But once I find a good alternative I will indeed stop buying new domains or new hosting service from godaddy as a result of knowing about this.

The fact that the guy is proud of killing an elephant is despicable imho. I agree with the fact that in that culture the people do kill them, do eat them, and there may be too many elephants there and they may be causing damage so in that sense it's "Okay" to kill them. BUT, for a guy to travel over there just so HE can have the thrill of killing one is pathetic and totally effed up. Again, IMHO.

Of course everyone has to decide for themselves on this and it's not a matter of "Yes it's right" or "No it's wrong" to kill an elephant. It's personal opinion.

But to me this is good marketing because it makes me realize what a scumbag (from my own perspective) this guy is and I don't want to support his business any more. As to whether I use the service of the company who put this out there, it depends on if they get good reviews for their service, etc. But it at least serves to take away business from godaddy, and in so doing MAYBE they'll get some of that business.

I'm not buying his theory that he was helping the farmers by getting rid of a pest or providing food to people that need it. Any one of those farmers could have killed the elephant themselves. There's plenty of guns floating around Africa and I bet they are much better hunters than he is. They didn't need some rich dude coming over there to fire off a couple shots. I'm sure it probably did help them but that's not why he did it, he's just using that as his excuse.

Sigh, I'm not sure why a number of people want to get this thread either closed or deleted.

But it doesn't see right to hijack the OP for personal opinions that have nothing to do with the OP .

Marvin

Controversy sells, just in case you have all forgotten.

Chris

Parsons is a tasteless Douche Bag. And NameCheap isn't any better for using this.

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wow...what a marketing stunt. did you end up buying from them? I use name.com btw.

NameCheap offers good service. And they earn the right to do such ad campaigns. However a brand new company doing this would be awkward.

I really like namecheap...I've been getting my knew domain name's from them.
I still have alot of domains with dodaddy and i will keep them there
but for now and the future I will be with namecheap.

Plus those Super Thin Godaddy GIRLS are getting old to me.

Well, on second thought I think this is a bad move by namecheap. I tried transferring 2 domains and the checkout page is taking forever to load

Well, 5921 new domains transferred to Namecheap so far and very rapidly rising says that it was a smart move:

I think it's great publicity and that's what good marketing is all about. It reminds me of the time years ago when Michael Jackson cancelled one leg of his tour citing he was suffering from dehydration.

Coke then advertised "DEHYDRATED? DRINK COKE" which was a competitive shot at MJ's sponsor Pepsi.

Very clever.

I think it's a smart move by namecheap. my No 1 domain registrar. For those that are calling this dirty marketing. Sorry to burst your bubble but most marketing tactics are dirty.

I just had a thought; wouldn't it be ironic and hilarious if byebyegd.com was hosted on godaddy?

I never liked GD, and like the guts namecheap has to have with that move.

Just a quick update; over 7,000 domains have been transferred from godaddy to namecheap as of now. That's also $7,000 donated to help protect elephants.

I dislike GD almost as much as manica. World's fastest woman, even without the race car. That said, on name creep, that name says it all for me. Like there is a lot of mud on both pigs.

I won't get into the debate about killing elephants. I think it was very stupid of the GD CEO to have posted this and smart of Namecheap to take advantage of his stupidity.

I have 1 name at GD and have been thinking about changing for a while so I have taken advantage of this offer and saved some change. Thank you Joseph for posting this! I would have completely missed it otherwise. Down to the wire as it was.

Smart by Namecheap or super dumb by GD?

What is more ethically questionable. Taking advantage of a competitors stupidity or allowing a morally questionable act go unnoticed and unpunished?

There's no doubt that it's a smart move.

And it's a bit funny the way they position themselves...

"Use coupon code BYEBYEGD and let's help the Elephants together!"

Thanks for details......

I've never been thrilled with anything Godaddy. Confusing/user unfriendly site, high prices, upsells much too aggressive. I switched to Dynadot about 1.5 years ago and never looked back.

I think it's underhanded, and I might move my dozens of domains from namecheap as a result.

Sport hunting for elephant and other large African game are the primary reason they still exist. Big game hunting has turned them from a liability and source of food to a natural resource that brings consistent foreign investment into areas where it wouldn't otherwise be. As a result, the locals have a vested interest in maintain the game species for the future.

If they are actually losing money and donating, it sounds good to me. I would consider transferring to them if I were a GD user. But I'm not.

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For those of us moving domains out of Godaddy for whatever reason (even saving quite a bit of money would be a good enough one for me..), here is the chance to move even more (just found it):

Yet another domain provider is offering a $4.99 transfer deal.
Domain.com will donate $1 of each transfer to Heifer International.
Use coupon code FEEDAFRICA
http://www.domain.com/blog/domaincom...p-feed-africa/

Hope it helps some of us and if a part of the money is donated, even better. A Win-Win for all but Godaddy.

side note: I don't agree with public slaughter for no real reason, if the meat was needed, they would simply have hunted the elephant by themselves instead of getting a rich man to do it - for him it WAS FOR FUN, everybody who has read about Bob P. knows he is ticking "that way" - the excuse of helping the people is ridiculous)

IMHO.
I believe, it's all about context.
If the GD CEO pre-framed the killing in his video to make it look like a clever fact-revealing documentary by saying: "Many people think that elephants are in danger. But visit the secluded village of Bla-bla and you will see that it's actually elephants who threaten the lives of the villagers. The brave men of the village fight those angry beasts day and night and they begged me for help."

He didn't. Mistake.

Namecheap should have proven that they actually deeply care about the elephants by showing some videos from past events in support of elephants(or wildlife in general). For example: "if you've been with us long enough you know about our strive to protect the environment. Here's video of us doing some charity thing back in 2009. And here are our photos of 2010 "Save the planet" camp. We can't stand silently watching the outrageous murder committed by the GD CEO. We want to help protect elephants.... And that's why only today we offer...."

They didn't. Mistake.

Yes, but having Bob do it was an upsell.

They reduce the elephant problem, get the elephant meat and they get the money Bob payed them for the privilege of hunting the elephant. As a bonus they also got some new clothes.

Sounds to me like they are pretty savvy businessmen.

The truth is, I don't think it will hurt GoDaddy in any way.

Perhaps this would be of interest to this discussion.

The Real Story Behind Bob Parson's Elephant-Killing "Safari" [PICS]

As Paul Harvey would say, "And thats, the rest of the story..."

I heard about this issue yesterday and it was not very nice to see the video,i am afraid these type of scenes happen everyday but and this is the differance people dont usually hear about it hence no one complains,but such a high profile person actually showing the public a video on this subject it will kick all the wheels of publicity into top gear and this must be seen as bad news for Godaddy.

It does not matter if animals eat crops or not that is not the issue here the issue is that people can be high charged by seeing a animal culled,i think Goddady will have a big job to confince people to stay with them after this one but over time it will all be forgotten and everything will return to normal.Regarding the other issue of Namecheap trying to take advantage of the situation its business we are talking about here and of course it will happen and yes they will get a big influx of business from it but not sure if they will stay with them in the long run.

I have most of my domains with Godaddy and yes i am happy about staying with them,they all have faults of course they do but some have more than other so this is why i will be staying with them.

They say that any publicity is good publicity for a company,having the good looking girls like Danica Patrick is a smart move but shooting wild elephents and putting a video up on the net that is a dumb move and could be costly for them.

Wauw, this is gonna be a very hot topic in this forum! (if it isn't already!)

Haven't watched the video as, frankly, I don't want that sort of thing to pollute my day. It might be that Namecheap are "exploiting" this for their own ends - I have no way of telling how much they care or don't care about elephants, but suspect they probably do care about lifetime customer value. If that coincides with their ethical position on a certain issue, so much the better.

What I do like about it, though, is that Namecheap are giving consumers an opportunity to vote with their feet, thereby making their objection known, in a low hassle way. I'm all for customers withdrawing support from organisations whose ethics, social or environmental stance is not aligned with their own.

(And I don't have any registrations with GoDaddy anyway as I found everything about their pages distasteful and never got past that.)

Charities We Support – Go Daddy Cares | Supporting Community Through Charitable Patronage

GoDaddy.com Doubles Donation – Providing $100K to Arizona Humane Society SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.

Go Daddy Dogs ‘Max & Chief’ Deliver $50K Donation to Help Arizona Pets SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.

He's just so awful and mean!

It's a dog-eat-dog-world so I think it's a smart move.

How stupid can that GoDaddy guy be? He thought everyone would be OK with it?

I heard a rumor that namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall went fishing once and he didn't throw the fish back.

NOW what is everybody going to do!

As if swallowing a hook doesn't suck enough, the poor fish is left to suffocate and die. That's straight out of SAW XXVII stuff. Think about it, really. Nobody has a problem with fishing and it's not exactly a cakewalk for the fish.

OK, me an my sarcastic ass are going to go cook up some dead baby chickens. Yummy!

Well, the over emotional and irrational are throwing a hissy fit, the rest of us live in something called reality.

Wow... I started this thread, when for a short travel to Malaysia, came back and see 3 pages full of comments!

Nice one, guys, a lot of perspective given here.

Regardless of how you feel on the matter, 12,116 domains have been moved from godaddy to namecheap, which is also $12,116 donated to help protect elephants.

There is no doubt that godaddy lost thousands of customers from this pr disaster, not to mention at least $120,000 in revenue from domain hosting alone. That's not accounting for extra services like hosting and add ons.

Meh. IMO none of this has to do with the plight of elephants, or how absurd and disturbing the killing of wildlife is - when done for sport. It's about a guy who thinks he's untouchable, who happens to be grotesquely rich and arrogant, finally getting a proper beat down - all from a competitor that deserves the right to knock him off his high bloody horse. Namecheap OWNS Godaddy as far as quality of service, so now they get to pwn the dude with advertising. It would seem all is right in the world, at least for the next few moments.

The fact that he's off in Zimbabwe or Kenya (or wherever the hell) shooting animals "just because" makes him even more the creepy SOB. Folks like that deserve a good kick in the crotch, so thank you Namecheap, thank you very much.

I will say this, for those defending him as having accomplished something of humanitarian ilk (:rolleyes might I point out that most folks born and raised in the continental US have any number of domestic causes far better served by the philanthropic ambitions of a multi-millionaire - without having to travel to Africa with a gang and some guns and merrily end the life of truly awe-inspiring creatures. Or perhaps nobody's been getting the memos I've seen lately, showing the countless thousands of homeless soldiers, veterans who fought for his right to be filthy frikin rich. There's plenty he could be doing in his own neighborhood, stuff that doesn't require him getting various sick pleasures and "adventures" out of the deal.

So, yeah, him going to Africa to help out some tribe from getting trampled to death... well it really deserves some perspective.

This guy is a horses a$$, plenty of folks know it, and his own narcissism is now affording namecheap a mountaintop to shout it from. Good for namecheap IMO. I hope they suck the life from godaddy like hungry vampires. Godaddy has basked in a sea of "suck" for a long time now anyway.

Parsons is simply horrible...there is no enough justification for his act. And he got the balls to post the video of his exploit...

According to Save the elephants!, over 15,000 domains have been transferred from gd to namecheap. I wonder if they've extended the coupon to beyond 24 hours.

Honestly I think it is a real smart move. How many domain registars spend their time on mailing people about this news in taking action? Uh-Namecheap has made some noise and I am pretty sure that this has been an effective approach to get people moving.

Just dunno if Godaddy has intentions on spreading the word after having the video shoot though. Did they intend to become popular with this way of marketing?

Andrea

Firstly If Bob Parsons goes around hunting elephants with a Go Daddy hat on, its his own fault.

I used Namecheap a few weeks ago and found it much better than the "would you like any frys" style of Godaddys check out.

As someone who is anti guns n hunting, it would have swayed me even if I already given up on godaddy.

i think this is wrong move by namecheap, sending the video is still ok but asking people to transfer from godaddy to namecheap is a bad move1!

CY

Forgot to mention that elephant meat tastes like chicken, and an elephant feeds lots more villagers than a chicken. Can you imagine the size of those drumsticks? How about a ele-fil-a sandwich!

As far as the number of customers that went to name cheap from godaddy, IMHO most went for the coupon, not out of protest of Bob Parsons or to support save the elephants. Just wait, in a few weeks, Parsons will offer a "come back to godaddy" coupon, and you will have a flood of people headed back the other way.

I've purchased domains from both, and I am happy with both. Glad to hear that Bob Parsons is a war hero, that godaddy donates lots of $$$ to charity, and that Bob is a manly man that likes to hunt.

I like a company that stands up for what they believe in. And if hunting bothers you, and if you are afraid of guns, you need to go on over to Name Cheap. Or you could just send a check to save the elephants, save the whales, anti-gun coalition of America, PETA or whoever makes you happy.
Can't we all just get along?

Seriously, I don't do business with many companies because I don't like their politics, or corporate culture, or because they have marketing parties at the playboy mansion. It's my choice, and yours.

Hey, I am against animal cruelty but then whose definition are we going to use to decide where it begins. I,for one, believe you have to look at intent. Bob Parson's intentions (based on his statements) we good. His PR was lousy. The video was DUMB for a whole lot of reasons. But who of us hasn't made a mess of implementing our good intentions at some point.

So while Namecheap has every right to use the misstep to their marketing advantage (because we have seemingly come to the rationalization that all is fair in love, war and marketing), I think the gains may be short-lived while the distaste lingers for a great while.

I am no marketing genius, but I think being appalled while not pouncing would have accomplished the same results without the bloodletting. (Okay... call me compassionate or naive.)

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a customer of both registrars and am not transferring my domains.

I will definitely check out name cheap next time I buy a domain. I can't stand people who kill beautiful wild animals for sport and godaddy should have been smart enough to keep this to himself and not advertise his controversial "sport". The stupidity of telling everyone how he loves to kill elephants is another good reason not to use godaddy. He should have kept it quiet.

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I have 40 domains registered with GoDaddy ... and guess what? They are loosing every single one of them! Sick, sick, sick! Such rare and precious animals these elephants are, and to think killing one brings such joy to some people. There is no excuse. NONE. Feeding villagers? Are you kidding me? What a ridiculous excuse. 7 billion humans on the earth and growing. Hunger is not exactly reducing our population. Birth control would help tons with the problems in Africa.

When mankind has polluted every bit of air and water, the lakes have been drained, the last animals have been killed, the last trees have been cut down, then he will finally figure out that he can't survive by eating money.

Creepy guy who uses disgusting Marketing tatics, however on the other side of the spectrum. Thinks out of the box and pushes his grubby little ploy in front of peoples nose's, hence gaining him more money in the long run and lasting customers.

Interesting posts.

Thanks may they continue.

I do now know who I will not be buying from on this forum period and who I will be more interested in buying from in the future.

If people want to continue to support this creep after this well then continue to be part of the problem. Just watch out for Karma it will be a coming. You can kid yourself all you want. No Im skills will help you with that one.

I have always had my domains with namecheap, but I think we have bigger problems to worry about than what Bob Parsons is doing. Like the fact the U.S. is in 14 trillions dollars of debt, we are fighting 3 different wars, teenagers are getting their legs blown off in war, we are in a recession, and etc. etc.

That is very weird but Bob is a good guy I think and funny.

He has some hot girls workin for him LOL

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OMG!

Not this thread again.

It's still chump change compared to what godaddy has donated to animal rights organizations and animal shelters.

And all of that additional revenue goes into the pockets of namecheap, not helping elephants.

So, to tally up the score:

godaddy: -1 for bad PR

namecheap: +1 for takeing advantage of a situation

the heard: following, like always

Here am I looking for a deal months later. I ax you...I AX YOU THIS question.... What about ALL the elephants AFTER 3/31/11? Hmmn??! Don't they deserve your support??? You know they are all sad and crying now because you ran away after your life saving special ended.

I ax you as one elephant enthusiast to another. Don't you think it is about time to run this special again? I'll throw $49.99 bucks of support your way to help save innocent elephants.

Don't do it for me. Don't do it for you. Do it for the elephants. Do it now. Do it today. Run your elephant support special again. The elephants are crying and pleading, and depending on you... Oh, and be sure to send me a note so I can work with you on this matter by transferring my domains at a discounted price.




Show your protest by saying BYEBYEGD again and transfer your domains to Namecheap for $4.99 for the next 24 hours through 11:59pm EST on 3/31/11 (limit 10 per user, valid for all com/net/org domains).