Web hosting and domain name registrations company GoDaddy had recently announced its India entry and had appointed Rajiv Sodhi as Managing Director of GoDaddy India. Prior to joining Go Daddy, Rajiv worked in various technology roles in India. He recently held the positions of Director of SMB and Cloud Business, both with Microsoft. In an exclusive interview with India Digital Review, Sodhi discusses his plans of establishing the GoDaddy brand in the Indian market.

GoDaddy was founded in 1997. Considering it has been around for quite some time now, is it not a late entry in India?

Looking at India as a market, I don’t think we have made a late entry. Some time back we have just crossed 123 million internet users in India and this makes it the number three country worldwide in terms of internet penetration. But from a market standpoint, it is still a 10% penetration and 90% of the market is still untapped. Internet penetration is just about to take off in India and we are at a very good tipping point and it is probably the best time to enter the market.

What is your take on the competition in India as there as similar service providers?

When you think about domains, websites, hosting and cloud services, obviously there are a lot of providers. I think the market is large enough to accommodate all players. The most important thing is deciding what is most important for the customer and which company innovate the fastest to satisfy the customer. To be completely honest, the real competition is the customer. The day I crack what exactly my customer needs from me, there will be no competition for us.

You were the Director of SMB and Cloud Business, both with Microsoft. How different would be your role here as GoDaddy India MD?

Every job comes with its own bunch of opportunities and duties. In Microsoft I was involved with the same market of SMBs and in that sense the present role is similar. But I think that the opportunity in the current role is far more exciting because of the ability to serve the market with scale. We are also working in making our products very helpful for the Indian market. And finally, the most exciting part is GoDaddy’s reputation of providing the best consumer experience and this will be a big differentiator for us. I am excited to bring this positive experience for the SMBs in India.

What are your immediate priorities as the company’s MD in India?

The first priority is to bring and establish the brand in India and stabilise the business model. Secondly, internet adoption in the market is at a very nascent stage and there is a need to impart lot of awareness and education about the benefits of online and internet. That is one of the key priorities of GoDaddy India. Thirdly, when an SMB comes online, there is a lot of support and handholding that he needs. Our priority is to understand what our consumers need and want from us and then deliver them with satisfaction.

Out of your total customer base, what is India’s share?

Our global customer base is 10.3 million and out of that around 100,000 customers are from India. From the market standpoint, India is GoDaddy’s third market with US being the first followed by China in the second.

What are your marketing plans in India?

Right now, it will be too early for us to comment on this. But marketing and brand building will play a crucial role in establishing GoDaddy’s presence in India.

What is GoDaddy India’s team size and geographical presence in the country?

Right now it’s only me and I am looking to put together a team and we are making good progress in that. We are based out of the customer care center in Hyderabad.

How have you witnessed the Indian SME sector adopting to web and cloud services like yours?

Lets take a step back and talk about IT adoption. There are a number of challenges that historically have played in this sector. Affordability and relevance of the solutions offered were a big challenge in growing the market. Putting money on the table for something called IT was the last in the priority list of SMBs. Today, some of these challenges have been addressed and are no more there. The barriers are decreasing if not completely gone and by 2014-15, we can see that IT adoption among SMBs will be very high. Reason because internet adoption is growing and also the SMBs look at the export markets for competitiveness and IT is a great driver of that.

What are your personal expectations from GoDaddy India?

My expectations are very simple. I think we are at a point where we can shape the structure of IT adoption in the country. We take pride in making small businesses grow bigger and we are very passionate about that.