Google shuts down its domain registrar business; sells to Squarespace for $180 million about a decade after launch

Google’s Alphabet is getting out of the domain registrar business almost a decade after the search giant makes its foray into the space. In a surprising announcement today, Alphabet announced today that it is shutting down its Google Domains business, the domain name registrar operated by Google.

The popular website-building platform Squarespace also confirmed the report in a separate announcement saying that it Google Domains in a deal valued at $180 million, with JPMorgan Chase providing financing for a portion of the purchase, Bloomberg reported. The acquisition deal is expected to be finalized in the third quarter, subject to customary closing conditions.

Google Domains was initially launched as an experimental project in 2014 but has since grown into one of the largest domain registrars, managing approximately 10 million domains. More than half of these domains are .com domains, making Google the fifth-largest registrar for such domains.

Google’s decision to divest this business comes as a surprise, with the company citing a desire to focus more sharply as the reason behind the move.

For Squarespace, the acquisition of Google Domains presents a significant opportunity due to its extensive customer base. Google Domains has primarily focused on selling domains directly to end users, and Squarespace hopes to leverage this user base and convert them into customers for its own site building and other tools.

During a transition period, Squarespace said it is committed to honoring Google Domains renewal prices for existing customers for at least 12 months. Customers will continue to use Google’s registrar platform during this period.

As part of the deal, Squarespace will become the exclusive domain name provider for customers purchasing a domain along with their Workspace subscription directly from Google, with a minimum commitment of three years.

It’s worth noting that Squarespace itself is a domain registrar and manages millions of domains. According to ICANN reports, around 850,000 of these domains are .com domains, and some of them are sold through resellers.