Recently we talked about how ZISPA, the association that has had an extended involvement in domain registration and the management of the .co.zw domain is looking at improving its service delivery.
The market for domain registration has however been growing and ZISPA hasn’t been the only player in that field. In fact, part of its shortcomings have actually inspired new entrants over the past few years. Providers like name.co.zw and webnames.co.zw have entered the fray, providing assistance to people frustrated with delays in verifying domain availability and multiple registrations.
Now, another startup, GetDomains has entered the same line of trade. It was launched recently by Kudzai Tuso, a Zimbabwean techie who wants to help solve the problems that come with registering .co.zw domains.
Anyone who wants to acquire a .co.zw domain or verify its availability only needs to access the site getdomains.co.zw. The platform has a stripped down interface and to buy a domain you need to go through an account registration process, something similar to what name.co.zw also uses. Payment options so far include PayPal, VISA and MasterCard, though the mobile money option is set to be activated shortly.
Tuso says he observed how the domain registration process has always been difficult because of its manual nature, especially at stages that include filling in the txt file that is required by ZISPA for every domain that is supposed to be registered. This is even more challenging for customers who want to register multiple domains.
GetDomains has adopted the same business model that has been used by its competitors, generating revenue from web hosting and using the domain registration service with its token fee of $2 as a way of securing clients. However web hosting isn’t compulsory and there is an option on the GetDomains website to select services with or without the hosting add-on.
Having launched in the last part of 2015 GetDomains hasn’t taken over a significant part of the market from existing independent domain registration and web hosting concerns though Tuso says the response so far has been positive. For now the team is trying to get as much feedback as possible from users, while racking up a client count to ensure that their startup can gain flight.
The market seems to be getting crowded in terms of startups offering this service, but according to testimonies from guys like Tuso and his competition, there is a growing demand for domains and hosting which has been spurred by Zimbabwean entities appreciating the value of a web presence.
So will GetDomains be ready to take on competition and mark its space in this area? Tuso strongly believes so citing the months of work put into GetDomains and some challenges that have been encountered and overcome just for them to take off.
11 comments
Beautiful website and amazing user experience. Makes using services like name.co.zw a gruelling eperience. Finally, we have some world class services coming up for local products!
Nice attempt to sound like a random user, yet attacking competition.
Not a good trait
Actions speak louder.
Madness Paul, whats ‘gruelling’ about name.co.zw? Maybe the price only, but the process is easy, and I love paying through Ecocash. Competition is good for us, but the process with name.co.zw is still good
@Mashvee, Paul is not mad, he is saying facts here, do accept , the UI is excellent, i know you love name.co.zw but they are now inferior with what we have now. Technology is moving and we need world class products that care about User Experience(UX). Paying through EcoCash doesn’t make a product good.
nice beef up the competation
Chakanaka chakanaka mkaka haurungwe!
I went and clicked around after l saw a reply from tinm@n. If these guys are going to deliver on the promise, then their website is first place they are registering success, the look and feel is great except for that location map.
Please change the background colour its depressingly dark l was struggling to read the streets names.
Thanx for the feedback Macd, will look definately look into it.
Excellent work Max, keep up the good work. I registered my domain and it was a a very quick and very easy process. If anyone wants to register a domain getdomains.co.zw is the place to visit.
I can do better in a month. Joining the crowd asap
Registered a domain without hosting. 2bucks! No BS. Clean UI.
the interface of the new domain registration is very good, but the domain registration business is one of low margins, hope they can survive in the long term, good that they are using the domain registration as a bait into web hosting which also has low margins but the margins are better there