HostGator has grown massively from being run in a dorm room to hosting its current 250,000 customers owning 4.9 million domains in 200 countries. In 2002, Brent Oxley, the founder and CEO, had just three servers to start with, placed in his room. It is hard to imagine that the successful HostGator we see today had come from such humble beginnings.
Based in Houston, Texas, HostGator offers a wide range of hosting services, namely shared, reseller, VPS and dedicated server packages. The company achieved its first success by successfully hosting 200,000 domains in January 2006, just 4 years after its birth. Two years later, HostGator received its first accolade – to be named as one of INC 500′s Fastest Growing Companies in America. The year 2008 was indeed a great year of achievement for HostGator as it added another feather to its cap by being at the top of the Top 50 Businesses in Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas list. Subsequently later in the year, HostGator was ranked second in the Top 100 Business Services Companies of 2008.
The following year in 2009, HostGator had reached a mark of 2.9 million domains hosted. By 2010, there were 4.9 million domains hosted, signifying a growth of two million domains in just a period of one year. This success led to its set up of a new office at 8100 Cameron Road, Austin, Texas in July 2010. The office, located on the North Loop, spans 170,000 square feet and is rated as a Class A office building. This new office serves as a comfortable workplace to a total workforce of 500 people.
HostGator Corporate Responsibility
Last year, apart from providing a more conducive environment to work in for their growing number of employees, Hostgator had also allocated time and resources to improve client satisfaction. The largest training session was conducted early in the year for 64 new support representatives who would be tasked to resolve their clients’ issues efficiently. Corporate responsibility was also not forgotten. Hostgator funded a number of organizations such as breast cancer research institutes and donated to charity such as the Haitian earthquake victims. On the fun and lighter side, Hostgator sponsored a NASCAR team and further created awareness of its presence through billboard advertising.
HostGator Account Manager
With great performance all year round in 2010, HostGator looks set to repeat its achievement, if not perform better for the year 2011. They have lined up a couple of features to enhance the clients’ hosting experience. A HostGator Account Manager (HAM) system was launched in February 2011, enabling clients to manage their hosting account at one central location. Clients are able to make payment, obtain billing details, manage domain names as well as manage their HostGator affiliate accounts, dedicated servers and VPS accounts.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Clients can also look forward to the new Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tools introduced in the control panel. These tools are made available to hosting customers as a result of a partnership with Attracta and will serve to assist HostGator clients in increasing the traffic to their websites. On top of that, HostGator will launch a domain registrar to facilitate the transfer of clients’ domains to HostGator.
With the plans that HostGator has in store for 2011 and backed by the support of a bigger skilled taskforce, they look set to grow their existing client base to remain one of the top hosting companies!
