Why Facebook doesn’t care who bought MessengerPlatform.com

It’s 2015 and the world has changed. There might have been a time where brands felt that they needed to own ever .COM associated with everything they do but that ship has sailed, and it’s sailing away faster by the minute as new domain extensions like .CO, .CLUB, .GURU and many more take the spotlight.

messenger-platform

Today Facebook announced their Messenger Platform, a technology platform that allows developers to built apps that integrate with Facebook Messenger and the 600 million users on it. This is a big deal and one that massive teams of developers have been working on for some time now.

So why not buy MessengerPlatform.com? Because it’s not 1999, that ship has sailed and Facebook will do just as well with the platform whether they own the exact-match .COM or not, and heck they already own Messenger.com which is without a doubt the category-killer in the space.

Back in 2005 buying the name of a company’s product or service could mean big bucks for someone who wants to squat on the name but in 2015 I can tell you the guy (or gal) who bought MessengerPlatform.com has to be crazy if they think they’re going to see a big payday from Facebook. I see two scenarios, either Facebook does nothing about it because it really doesn’t matter at all to them, or it ends up bugging them enough that they send the lawyers after them.

Either way I don’t think buying a domain like this makes anyone a “clever investor” or someone who is “cashing in on a trend”. Instead it’s just someone who is obviously trying to make a quick buck in a world that has changed. I’m a big believer in the strong value of generic domains, I have a ton of respect for the person who owned Messenger.com, that’s a huge name and it makes a lot of sense that Facebook bought it.

Buying product names the day a company announces it isn’t investing in my opinion, it’s holding onto something that might have worked ten years ago but doesn’t make any sense in 2015. Congrats to Facebook on truly innovating in a massive market and good luck to whoever thought it was a bright idea to buy MessengerPlatform.com…

What do you think? Comment and let your voice be heard!

(image source – Facebook Blog)
Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton