I spoke with GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani live on stage last week at an event hosted by Alix Partners in Palo Alto. GoDaddy is one of those companies that feels tied to an earlier era, but Aman’s been CEO since 2019, and he’s been building out what he calls adjacencies.

The business of the web has really changed in the past few years: the walled-garden, social network era really took over in the past decade, and now huge changes to Google Search and the addition of generative AI have really put a massive strain on the very foundations of the open web. So I started out by asking Aman the question I’ve asked so many other guests on Decoder in the past year: What is the point of a website in 2024?

Links: 

• If GoDaddy can turn the corner on sexism, who can’t? | New York Times (2017)
• Google Zero is here – now what? | Decoder
• Five for the Future – GoDaddy | WordPress.org
• 2024 is shaping up to be the smallest Black Friday ever | GoDaddy
• GoDaddy’s mission to get entrepreneurs up and running fast | Forbes
• GoDaddy launches a suite of AI tools for small businesses | Fast Company
• Why make a website? Squarespace CEO Anthony Casalena has ideas | Decoder
• Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami on why the web isn’t dying after all | Decoder
• How WordPress and Tumblr are keeping the internet weird | Decoder
• Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi | Decoder

Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/24069405

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Travis Larchuck and Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices