According to a story today in the KansasCity.com, it seems that Google did not even contact BMW, that owns the domain name Alphabet.com, to see if they would sell it before going with abc.xyz
The article quotes a spokesman at BMW, who said “that the automaker was not informed ahead of time of plans by Page and Brin to create a company called Alphabet and had not received any offers to buy the Internet domain or the trademark”.
Beyond BMW’s trademark issue with Google there are plenty of other Company’s using the term Alphabet:
“On Wall Street, there is an Alphabet Funds. Lots of midsize and small companies also use the name Alphabet. There is an Alphabet Energy in Hayward, Calif.; an Alphabet Record Co. in Austin, Texas; an Alphabet Plumbing in Prescott, Ariz.; and many preschools, inns and restaurants with some variation of the name.
“It’s quite flattering really,” said Steve Lockwood, the company secretary of Alphabet, a small recruitment and outsourcing firm in London. “We probably won’t put it on the agenda to sue them over it, but if they want to make us a very generous offer for our domain names, we’ll certainly consider it.”
“We do all of our business online, and Google could really affect us,” said Jennifer Blakeley, who in 2008 registered Alphabet Photography as an online retail store selling printed photos of buildings and natural formations that look like letters.
The story quotes Jason Adler, founder and chief executive of Alphabet Funds, a group of hedge funds in New York, who said he already tried to buy Alphabet.com but was unsuccessful.
“I’m getting blown up from all my investors and my friends they are sending me emails, all of them, and every one of them says the same thing: ‘Google took your name.’”
Adler founded Alphabet in 2007, and today it includes three hedge funds and is raising its first venture capital fund.
Why would they contact BMW?
The domain name is probably not for sale and even if it was it would cost millions and a couple of years before they could use the domain name.
And alphabet is just a vanity name.
K-
Why would they not contact BMW doesn’t hurt to ask
I think the fact that they didn’t reach out speaks volumes
It is one of the stupidest things to claim a monopoly over the word Alphabet regardless of trademark registration. Such a trademark ,if any, is a non-sense.
The only problem I can see with Alphabet.google is that is too long to write in an address bar.
Wake up folks. Google could have easily purchased “alphabet.com”, but ABC.XYZ is a flat out better domain name for establishing a NEW business model.
In fact, more often than not the exact-match domain or cleverly branded gTLD makes much better sense than a corresponding tired and meaningless .COM.
The new gTLD’s are here to stay and Google rejecting of “alphabet.com” only speeds up the adaptation.
Google could have easily purchased “alphabet.com”
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My guess would be that if they’d wanted to buy it the price probably would have been too high. Google makes around $14billion per year, BMW around $5billion. For the kind of money is might cost to convince BMW to rebrand a division it may not be worth it given Google’s use (I think the lack of any domain or social media handles suggest it is not very important to them).
Umm… This is a play specifically by Google and Negari.
It is to cause confusion, but the results are not in yet. See, Google is still Google.com they are not stupid. This is just some holding company, does it really matter at all? Not really, will the public use it? Maybe? I’m not sure, but this is a play against .com by these two rivals.
Why does no one see that google does not want version to be #1 in the domain space?
It’s just marketing, and I mean outside of the domain world who is talking about this? Anyone? People know about other TLDs. It is not really news, lol. People only know .com maybe in a few years .xyz but they will have to compete with .org and the rest to get in line for the #1 position.
Michael, obviously a biased player as well. The entire industry is never really interested in serving consumers, so who cares?
Dot com dominance only benefits certain people, and it is not long time investors or business owners that bought their dot com in the last decade, which was encouraged by the same group.
Now you have your dot com? Haha that is so last year, time to get a .xyz.. This is the crap you guys sell and I personally see through it all and see there is NO innovation. Nothing new, just 3 letters, and we have to listen to all of this nonsense?
Why?
Can’t see what’s the point. Abc.xyz tells their story than alphabet.com. They plan to end cancer, put driver free cars on the road and dig for minerals in outer space. Why should they want to signal that with a TLD which came out, when we still had fax machines?
It’s always nice to see domains get in the news. & I certainly commend Negari for what he’s done with his brand. If this guy had a solid product, like a must have app or the anti-hack security software, he’s make $millions.
But touting any extension as a game changer is a bit of a stretch, tantamount to makers of “love vitamins” claiming their products will put lead in your pencils and drive your sweethearts wild, all thru the night and morning after…
Let’s say a startup launches an app called Twist.xyz becomes the app of the month, a dating app to rival tinder.com — the Startup gets a Series A round of $4 million — what will be the priorities for use of the funds, in this order:
1) Get the .com – Twist.com
2) Hires (super star programmers, product developer, designer)
3) Office
4) Secure the Twitter Twist handle
5) Iterate
6) Release Twist 2.0
Even with domains, Meetme.com — they want hack Meet.me; it’s the digital telephone call of marketing — when I hear it over the phone, I have to get it — so if this amazing app is called TWIST, the first place I’d hunt is twist.com. If it’s “meet me “— then meet.me or meetme.com
My thoughts — not bashing the extension .xyz
Also I’m aware most commenters, including me, have motives or slants — protecting .com investments, promoting the GTLDs, due to being one of those who took a chance on these
I don’t believe everybody can be a winner. In fact, I know this is not possible. Maybe 1% will hit it big. 20% will do well. Most will not. However, those who sell services (legal, marketing, ads, domain services/registries) have a great chance of doing well, especially when GTLDs get big-time press, like ABC.XYZ
They didn’t contact AlphaBet Capital either. We chose the name, AlphaBet Capital Advisors (www.alphabetcapital.com), in 2004 as a word play on the industry. In those days, the talk was all about the difference between Alpha and Beta. As you are probably well aware, in the investment industry ‘Alpha’ stands for the skill of a manager to outperform the market, which is taken as the benchmark, referred to as ‘Beta’. The company name, AlphaBet Capital Advisors, is not only a word play on the investment industry, it is also a reflection of what we do: ‘a Bet on Alpha’, selecting the very best in the industry – hence, the reason why AlphaBet Capital Advisors incorporates a capital letter ‘B’. The capital letters used, ABC, in the company name also reflect the deal flow from all around the world and global investor base of our Firm.