HTC Corporation and its new virtual reality hardware brand called Vive have secured the exact match domain (EMD) of the brand as a domain name, Vive.com.
It may seem “natural” that large companies just “own” these types of domain names as .com’s but often times they do not and need to be acquired from a past owner.
Vive started its life on the web as Brand+Brand via HTCVive.com. That’s cool and all because that is the full name of it, but the problem for these companies… consumers take the short route and simply call it Vive! It’s made by HTC, but it is simply Vive.
HTC actually acquired the domain name in May 2016 according to whois history records and this Reddit thread but this was the first time that I ran into it.
HTC has now announced a VR app store, called Viveport. As a domain name, HTC registered Viveport.com back on December 8, 2015. That gives us an idea of how long ago this “idea” was named and in the works since it was announced on August 5, 2016.
I’m sure the Vive.com domain name was “expensive” to acquire but from a branding perspective, it was and will be a great investment. It removes confusion, secures the brand and allows for make sense marketing using the EMD to the brand name.
Your articles are always a wealth of valuable information for the industry.
Thank you very much!
Great to see you posting regularly again! Always great info!
Mike
Hey Jamie,
Thanks for sharing some solid tips. You are awesome!