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:
What’s in a name? We changed ours to Novi, but our mission remains: creating a #WorldWideWallet that will make money work better for everyone around the world. Check out what we’re up to https://t.co/cijCPqVXPs pic.twitter.com/J80nXvjQtN
— Novi (@novi) May 26, 2020
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:
Facebook launches CatchUp, an audio-only group calling app that shows who’s ready to chat now https://t.co/asC4Nuz5nu by @sarahintampa
— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) May 26, 2020
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.
Nice name this novi.com – More like this at catchy.com