Dive Brief:
- Brands like McDonald's, Taco Bell, Pepsi, Subway, Ford, and Starbucks have all popped up on the new messaging app Yo, which sends messages that all start with "yo."
- What's unknown, however, is if those brands actually created the usernames because Yo, which was developed as an April Fool's joke, hasn't established itself as a place of value for brands yet.
- It's likely those brand names are just held by squatters that jump on new platforms and score brand names before the app takes off so they can extort money or privileges from the brand due to its popularity.
Dive Insight:
A similar situation happened with Twitter. Brands should be checking for these squatters on any app getting a lot of attention. If the app never becomes popular, it won't be an issue, but if Yo were to become the next Twitter, brands could be squabbling over their proper user names. In an interesting twist, the app actually was hacked by some college kids, so it's fair to say Yo hasn't established itself as a safe place to play yet, either. Even so, in the tech community, Yo is being taken seriously and was able to raise $1 million in funding already.
