Recently, Facebook.com offered vanity names for its accounts. It prompted a gold rush or land grab type euphoria among tech savvy speculators who registered names with lightning speed.
Like domain names a few years back, cybersquatters are back and registering names on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites is now big business.
Now, as technology changes, speculators and other business opportunists fill the void. There is a nasceant market for the buying and selling of social media names. Now, I wouldn't characterize all such transactions as cybersquatting. I don't see a problem with registering a Twitter account name such as "Condo", building followers of real estate professionals, and then selling the name to the highest bidder. Developing a strong, expansive social network takes time and effort and there will always be someone who is willing to attempt to substitute "cash" for "hard work" for the instant gratification of purchasing another's network. To me, it is akin to selling a mailing list, provided that you aren't enfringing upon another's trademark, service mark or trade name and therein lies the problem.
Nevertheless, this post isn't about cybersquatting and its ethical and legal implications. It is simply a review of the website www.Assetize.com. Their concept is pretty simple. Assetize.com creates a marketplace or forum for account name holders to sell their account names to the highest bidder. Assetize.com currently permits the sale of account names from these social networking sites:
A brief review of the site indicates that there over 1100 accounts now listed for sale on the site including:
- Numbered account names like "24" or "24/7"
- Trademarked names like "MtnDew" or "PepsiWorld" or "Hilton World Resorts" or "EntertainmentTonight"
- Celebrity names or teams like "Shaq" or "Colorado Avalanche" to "ColdPlayTour" or "GregMaddux"
- Common causes or items like "teensandsmoking" or "condos."
The land rush for social media names like domain names will likely generate three separate cottage industries: (1) speculators who register and sell the names, (2) monitoring companies who register, monitor and protect corporate trademarks, service marks and trade names, and (3) lawyers who sue the nouveau cybersquatters for enfringing upon trademarks, service marks and trade names.
Before you register, sell or purchase such names, I would first review the terms of service for the social networking site. You may, in fact, be purchasing nothing if the transfer of accounts is prohibited. After reading the terms of service, I would strongly suggest that you contact your attorney before you use a celebrity name or trademarked name. If you are looking for the St. Louis connection in this post, you don't have to look far. St. Louis Cardinals Manager Tony LaRusso recently sued Twitter for allowing an individual to register his name and Jeremy Fancher, a student at Washington University in St. Louis, registered facebook.com/dellcomputer. It should be interesting how this next chapter in cybersquatting plays out. All I can say is - it looks like it is going to get nasty out there folks.
Interested in learning more about how to use social networking sites to market and sell real estate? Contact Ryan Shaughnessy at PREA Signature Realty at 314-971-4381 or send an e-mail to Ryan@PREASignatureRealty.com.
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