Godaddy acquires Over, a South African startup as it moves to become a media start-up

Godaddy is one of the biggest names in domain registration. As of March 2019, the company reported 18.5 million customers. But it is now looking beyond the web to become a media start-up with the acquisition of South African startup, Over.

Godaddy acquires Over as it hopes to compete with Squarespace and Wix
Godaddy is positioning itself to compete with Squarespace and Wix

Over is an app that lets you create designs with customisable layouts and templates. It allows users to create content on a mobile phone for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other popular social platforms, as well as email marketing campaigns and websites. With over 1 million active users and 220,000 projects daily, Godaddy’s acquisition makes sense. 

The financial terms of the acquisition are not public knowledge but here’s what we know: Over will continue to operate as a standalone company.

Godaddy acquires Over in a bid to grow GoCentral, Godaddy’s website building product which contains tools which help with email marketing as well as search engine optimization (SEO). 

It also fits into a plan to reach people who don’t use Godaddy. According to Justin Tsai, Godaddy’s vice President of growth and product: 

“Over’s capabilities really target those set of people, who may have an Instagram profile where they need to post visually engaging content but have never gone to GoDaddy,”

Over CEO & Co-founder Matt Winn said: “Putting our best-in-class social content creator together with GoDaddy’s website and marketing tools is a powerful combination” 

“With our combined products, everyday entrepreneurs can go from an idea to a successful online presence faster than ever before.”

Over is the sixth company to be acquired by Godaddy since 2017. Other acquisitions include Main Street Hub, Cognate, Sellbrite, Scurri and Plasso.

Olumuyiwa Olowogboyega Author

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