Reglikedomain industry desk

Dropped Buy.com, now it plans to nix Play.com — First Rakuten

Dropped Buy.com, now it plans to nix Play.com — First Rakuten

Firm to nix the Play.com brand in favor of Rakuten.co.uk.

Rakuten.co.ukJapanese ecommerce firm Rakuten is doing something rather unusual: it is dropping the use of great, generic domain names in favor of its own brand Rakuten.

Last year the firm dropped the Buy.com brand from the firm of the same name it bought in 2010, forwarding the domain name to Rakuten.com instead.

Now it is preparing to drop the Play.com brand from the UK e-commerce firm it purchased in 2011. Play.com will soon forward to Rakuten.com instead.

People called the Buy.com switch the “World’s Dumbest Rebrand“. My understanding is Play.com is still a popular brand in the UK, so this change is equally as puzzling.

I get that Rakuten wants to “be the brand”, but it’s not exactly a household name in the places where Buy.com and Play.com were popular.

(Thanks @mneylon)

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