Facebook Gets Novi.com but Not CatchUp.com

Facebook made a couple of product launch announcements today, and it looks like the company secured one domain name but not the other.

Facebook announced that it rebranded its Calibra digital wallet product as Novi. Not only did Facebook manage to acquire the brand match Novi.com domain name, but the company also secured the matching Twitter handle:

The Whois record for Novi.com is private, but based on its usage, I am going to assume the company was able to acquire it. Prior to Facebook’s usage of the domain name, Novi.com had been used by a company called Novi-Tec Performance (thanks to Sean Markey for that info).

In other Facebook news, the company announced an audio-only group chatting app called CatchUp:

It does not appear that Facebook was able to secure the matching CatchUp.com domain name. CatchUp.com is owned by CBS Interactive Inc., and the domain name forwards to a page within the Cnet website.

I think it is very important for Facebook to own Novi.com given the fact that it is an independent financial service related entity. Trust is a major factor, and owning Novi.com should help with that. CatchUp is a service that seems to be related directly to Facebook, so the matching domain name is not as mission critical. Should CatchUp take off like Messenger did, I would not be surprised if Facebook acquires the matching domain name just as it acquired Messenger.com.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

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