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How do users obtain rare usernames?
On platforms like instagram there are usernames like @zero @funny @zo @dalen but usernames with non interrupted words are highly sought after and only reserved for big pages. My question is how would someone go about obtaining one of these sorts of usernames? Does said person need to have connection to people within the social media companies?
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1 Reply
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In the beginning, it was first come, first served, and early adopters got their choice.
Some companies may buy a name from an individual who nabbed a good one, or possibly (not sure) platforms may reserve some names with the hope they get engagement and use of their platform from big players.
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Go and register them back in 2010 is all I can think of.
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You DM them and make them a price. When social media began to really catch on, smart users speculated on @ handles much like people speculate on URLs. Some won’t sell. Some will try and hold your feet to the fire. There’s no formal process or exchange. You just barter.
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There’s an entire underground marketplace devoted to buying, selling or swapping unique and generic usernames. The most common way of obtaining them is by utilizing a media partner but most Meta reps will not entertain claims for anything generic that you can’t issue a trademark for. Our rep is only capable of processing claims for usernames that are at least six characters long, non-generic and have been inactive for at least a year or more.
The ones that are capable of claiming generics are usually corrupt and charge a ridiculous price tag in order to process the claim. Those with access to such reps end up reselling the handles to the highest bidder. Usually accounts like that must still be inactive though. If they’re not inactive, then it’s practically impossible to claim it regardless of which route you take.
Last I heard, @drip on Instagram got sold for a whopping $75k. Some generic handles are actively listed for sale across various Tele channels like @malicious ($15k), @administrator ($9k), @scanner ($2.2k) and hundreds of others. Even handles that are just random, short combinations of letters such as @teu, @igs, @jre are being sold for close to $6k in value so it’s definitely a lucrative field to be in despite being very obscure.
– Nikolas Lemmel | Maximatic Media
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The rabbit hole gets weird with this.
Sometimes Instagram will say “This username isn’t available. Please try another”
and it will also say “a user with that username already exist”.
Makes you wonder if they programmed their input system to block one-word dictionary usernames from being registered, so they can have it for themselves.
*^(Conspiracy music intensifies.)*
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Well. Now that we have something called Username claim, if the name you’re willing to use has already been used by another users and they are inactive for atleast six months ago, I can help you claim the username but if otherwise you can just DM them and negotiate if they are willing to sell it.
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For many platforms you need a valid trademark to even begin the process.
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