[At-Large] X marks the spot - a small spot

[Antony Van Couvering]

A counterpoint: 

Fortunately or unfortunately, Mr. Musk’s insistence on destroying a $45 billion brand so popular that it is used as a verb — the holy grail — doesn’t really have much to do with branding, or domain names, in the ordinary sense.  

There are different kinds of brands out there. Some have the power to project all the attributes that appeal to the brand holders and their customers — e.g., Chanel, 3M, McDonalds — and have been years and millions in the making.  Others have the unique quality of being easy to find, without much else to them. A generic word is a subpar brand from many points of view, but if people nonetheless find it because they remember it, then it functions as a brand in one important sense at least.  

It’s a terrible move for Twitter, IMO, but getting a short and memorable generic domain name (or letter) may not a bad business move for a small business, especially a startup, if the price is right. Their other choice is to find some name they want to brand and do all the work and spend all the money to get it recognized — something that a small business has neither the money, or time, to do. It may not have the long-term value of a “real” brand, but some businesses don’t have, (or don’t think they have) the luxury of thinking long term.  Depending on how and where they meet their customers, building a brand in the traditional sense might not be the smart move, while having a domain name that’s easy to remember and reproduce might pay off.

I agree that it’s stupidity for Twitter to become X, but I’d argue it’s not so stupid for a guide to LA to change from (for example) antonysguide.com to laguide.com. That might well be worth a few grand and even though “LA Guide” is pretty generic, it says on the outside what you can find on the inside, and that can be quite valuable for a company struggling to become known.  Later on they might regret it, but at least there will be a later on. 

Antony

> On Jul 26, 2023, at 5:02 PM, Evan Leibovitch via At-Large <at-large at atlarge-lists.icann.org> wrote:
> 
> So apparently a certain purveyor of rockets, tunnels and electric cars is infatuated with the letter "X" to the point of destroying decades and billions of dollars in accumulated brand value in renaming Twitter. Most involved in tech are I'm sure aware of this already.
> 
> Why am I posting this to ICANN mailing lists?
> 
> To call attention to the stupidity of confusing domains with brands, something in which many domain sellers -- mainly speculative domain re-sellers -- gleefully engage.
> 
> Apparently Mr. Musk seems to believe that acquiring "X.com" from Facebook -- along with some cosmetic redesigns -- constitutes a rebranding. Let this episode be a warning to others who would use a domain as a primary branding tactic, forgetting that:
> A great number of tech companies have trademarked uses of the letter X <https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/25/tech/meta-microsoft-trademarks-new-twitter-name/index.html> for web services, most notable among them the aforementioned Facebook. So this is not an issue of Musk being able to bully smaller companies;
> 
> Then there's Microsoft, which has some such trademarks of its own and produces an obscure, little-known computing device known as an "XBox";
> 
> Most people using Unix and Linux for their desktops have been using software known as "X" for decades (though it is being phased out ... very slowly). 
> 
> Also consider that doing searches for "X" on the Internet is ikely to find paths to very family-UNfriendly parts of the web. Consider the American "X" rating given to films before 1990.
> Let this be a cautionary tale, unfolding before us in real time. A domain name is at best a minor part of branding strategy that must consider many other factors. Paying a substantial sum for that second-hand domain will not be the answer to your problems, and may indeed introduce new problems. And especially beware of domain resellers passing themselves off as branding experts.
> 
> Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada
> @evanleibovitch / @el56
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