Buy.com To Change Its Name to Rakuten.com

[thegenius1]

Now if we can just get someone to buy a big ascii name and redirect to a IDN !


On Jan. 31 Buy.com is changing its name to Rakuten.com
No its not April’s fools day.

In May 2010 a Japanese company Rakuten bought Buy.com for $250 million. Now that company is going to rebrand Buy.com as Rakuten.com Shopping.

If you go to Buy.com today you will see the name “Rakuten” right above Buy.com

The Buy.com URL will remain, but consumers who go to the site will be redirected to Rakuten.com starting Jan. 31.

http://www.thedomains.com/2013/01/17/your-not-going-to-believe-this-one-buy-com-to-change-its-name-to-rakuten-com/

[domainguru]

Now if we can just get someone to buy a big ascii name and redirect to a IDN !


On Jan. 31 Buy.com is changing its name to Rakuten.com
No its not April’s fools day.

In May 2010 a Japanese company Rakuten bought Buy.com for $250 million. Now that company is going to rebrand Buy.com as Rakuten.com Shopping.

If you go to Buy.com today you will see the name “Rakuten” right above Buy.com

The Buy.com URL will remain, but consumers who go to the site will be redirected to Rakuten.com starting Jan. 31.

http://www.thedomains.com/2013/01/17/your-not-going-to-believe-this-one-buy-com-to-change-its-name-to-rakuten-com/

bye bye buy

[Fka200]

What a stupid decision.

[alpha]

I order a ton of stuff from play.com and the same thing looks to be happening there. I swear the Rakuten logo has been growing in size while the Play.com logo has been shrinking.

[thegenius1]

What a stupid decision.

It woulld be all for it if this becomes a trend in which they start rebranding/forwarding to IDN's. That would be a mega statement. This call right here though, I'm really not sure what to think.

[jose]

If we were reading "Buy.com To Change Its Name to Amazon.com"

would it be a joke also? I think they wanted to go global and "buy" is an English term

The replies on the post are funny, specially this one "Good Lord! I can’t handle this domainer mentality anymore!"

Anyway do you think they'll sell the names to pocket some cash?!

[thegenius1]

Anyway do you think they'll sell the names to pocket some cash?!

No because they are going to forward to Rakuten.

Did you guys see what Rick said lol ?

Rick Schwartz PERMALINK
This one is absolutely off the charts! DUMB beyond DUMB!
I already forgot it and can’t spell it.

So let me predict that their sales will go down the moment they change their name and they will rebrand again.

[thegenius1]

If we were reading "Buy.com To Change Its Name to Amazon.com"

would it be a joke also? I think they wanted to go global and "buy" is an English term

The replies on the post are funny, specially this one "Good Lord! I can’t handle this domainer mentality anymore!"

Anyway do you think they'll sell the names to pocket some cash?!

Yeah I actually kinda enjoyed reading this guys post. Dude makes some good sense.

God Damn it, I feel like I’m part of a f*****g when I read comments like these. The cult of “Generic Domains are what make life worth living and don’t try to tell me otherwise or use logic to influence me”. I grew up in a mild cult, I know what the “group think” is like and this comment thread has NAILED IT! A bunch of people patting themselves on the back as they agree with each others bullshit.

[jose]

And the group can be pretty hard on members thinking outside of the box: "what if..."

[domainguru]

They are branding themselves globally. That is what companies need to do now. There is nothing wrong with "co-branding" their generic names. It gives them total flexibility. They get all the type-in traffic, dual-branding, options for the future.

Some of you guys seem very insecure about companies use of their domain names. Its possible they might be doing the "right" thing for their company / brands.

[JamesD]

They could've picked a far better name for their brand...rakuten; rackuten; rakuton; racuten; racraputen.

[thegenius1]

They could've picked a far better name for their brand...rakuten; rackuten; rakuton; racuten; racraputen.

How many Music Groups, Movies, Restaurants, Clothing lines ect. could have chosen a "better name" but are still successful ?

[squirrel]

They could've picked a far better name for their brand...rakuten; rackuten; rakuton; racuten; racraputen.

Rakuten is their existing brand, I don't see a need to pick a new name, the same way I don't expect Google or Yahoo to have a different name in different markets.

[squirrel]

Anyway do you think they'll sell the names to pocket some cash?!

I don't think the money would be material to them.

[AWS]

Good move...

strengthens their name/brand.

[blastfromthepast]

Rakuten is their existing brand, I don't see a need to pick a new name, the same way I don't expect Google or Yahoo to have a different name in different markets.

Many companies change their names to suit the local market. Especially if their name sounds bad or meaningless in the local language. In China, where Google found itself new name.

While Google and Yahoo don't really mean much to anyone to begin with, being obscure words, Rakuten, on the other hand, is a generic name with a positive connotation, which is probably why it was chosen as the company name: optimistic, fresh, forward looking, modern, high tech, etc. All sounds very nice to Japanese ears.

[EN] optimism
[JP] 楽天 [らくてん] ← n.

[EN] optimist; easy-going person
[JP] 楽天家 [らくてんか] ← ✿ n.

[blastfromthepast]

However:

2010 To increase its global competitiveness, Rakuten decided to adopt English as the company’s official language from mid-2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakuten

From March 2010 Mikitani has implemented a plan that he calls "Englishnization", gradually making English the language of Rakuten, despite the fact the company is based in Japan with mainly Japanese staff. While the plan was dismissed as "stupid" by Honda president Takanobu Ito in 2010, Mikitani believes that: "English is not an advantage anymore -- it is a requirement."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshi_Mikitani

[Rubber Duck]

Takanobu Ito is a smart guy!

[blastfromthepast]

Apparently, Englishnization doesn't apply to the company name.