I've been wondering what are the common strategies used by software companies with regards to handling brand name usernames. For example if we look at Google, Airbnb, Dropbox, IBM, and Microsoft they each have their exact company names as their username on GitHub, Facebook and Twitter. I would be surprised if they were lucky enough to acquire their username on each service by being the first to get there.
So are usernames reserved from the beginning? Are they appropriated from normal users once a high value user wants it? Or do big companies just have people and tools they leverage to protect their brand name as new products and technologies come out?
It looks to me that it is in the interest of both the service provider and the business customer to allow big brands have the username that is their exact, or near exact, name. On the other hand it isn't obvious as to what the general approach to doing this is.
I've been wondering what are the common strategies used by software companies with regards to handling brand name usernames. For example if we look at Google, Airbnb, Dropbox, IBM, and Microsoft they each have their exact company names as their username on GitHub, Facebook and Twitter. I would be surprised if they were lucky enough to acquire their username on each service by being the first to get there.
So are usernames reserved from the beginning? Are they appropriated from normal users once a high value user wants it? Or do big companies just have people and tools they leverage to protect their brand name as new products and technologies come out?
It looks to me that it is in the interest of both the service provider and the business customer to allow big brands have the username that is their exact, or near exact, name. On the other hand it isn't obvious as to what the general approach to doing this is.