Shark Tank, now in its 11th season, is now more popular than ever. Although the show has gone a bit retail, meaning some of the companies are looking to bolster their bottom line and are already wildly successful, the majority of the show’s participants are entrepreneurs looking for a “measly” couple of hundred thousand bucks.
Early in January, ABC aired two episodes. Within those two episodes, there were three companies that not only missed the boat on their matching .com, but the domains were actually registered years ago, or are being used by other companies for years.
Shark Tank and domain names: Photo by DL Wyer on Unsplash
The first brand was Baobab, a shirt company looking for help in the huge men’s polo shirt market.
The problem is that baobab is a type of cotton tree, and that domain was registered in 2005. Many of the sharks disliked the name, because not only it’s hard to spell, but it’s also difficult to pronounce. Either way, with baobab.com not available, the company went with baobabclothing.com
The second brand at Shark Tank was a small personal mobility reseller called Zuum, which is a great creative name, and is exactly why it was registered in 1998 and not available. The young men pitching their hoverboard style shoes are currently using zuumtech.com
The third brand was Aira, a company building wireless charging devices for personal electronics like phones. Unfortunately, aira.com is owned by Bell Canada, so good luck ever getting that name, let alone the legal risk of using such a name for a similar service!
After witnessing 3 out of 6 companies not owning the short .com that represents their company, you realize that the domain is an afterthought when it should be the other way around!
Kudos: Dale G.
