If you’re going to invent a made-up name for a company — Accenture, Altria, something like that — one of the first things you should probably do is make good and sure that nobody else has used your name before. No other companies, and certainly no stoned Twitterers.
Apparently, Netflix didn’t take that step when it came up with the name “Qwickster” for the DVD-to-mail company it plans to split off.
The truly abysmal name Qwickster — is it “trickster,” only more quickly? Does Sean Parker deserve some kind of royalty payment? — has been used before, New York Magazine reports, by a Twitter user with a penchant for pot, f-bombs and, well, maybe food?
The spelling is slightly different — there’s no “c” in Mr. Qwikster’s handle — but this is just icing on today’s bitter cake for Netflix, with analysts roundly deriding the decision to split services. An early bounce in its shares has faded, and the stock is now down 2.4%.
Netflix: ‘Qwickster’ Name First Used By Fan of Pot-Smoking Elmo
http://on.wsj.com/mONpBb
Original content Bob DeMarco, Look Beyond the Obvious
