Firms Face Battles Over Twitter Accounts
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
More and more companies are grasping the potential of Twitter (www.twitter.com), the micro-blogging service that is the latest global Internet craze, as a powerful marketing platform. Unfortunately, chances are that other users have already claimed the company's names.
Twitter combines the strengths of blogs and instant messaging services, making "broadcast texting" popular among Internet users. A growing number of South Korean companies are opening Twitter accounts to better connect with consumers and generate buzz for their products.
However, industrial heavyweights such as Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor, SK Group and Lotte Group are not among them. Should they decide to join the 140-word Web phenomenon, they will have to acknowledge that they will be unable to use their own corporate brands.
A Twitter account created under Samsung's name has been currently suspended by the Internet company due to "strange activity," which could mean anything from service violations, technical abuse and spam distribution.
The Twitter accounts of Hyundai and SK are currently owned by imposters, while POSCO, Lotte, Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and Hanjin are other conglomerates that have had false accounts created under their name.
Telecommunications giants KT and SK Telecom were among the first Korean companies to use Twitter as marketing tools, but with the names "KT" and "SKtelecom" already taken, they had to settle for "ollekt" and "sktelecom-blog," respectively.
Even President Lee Myung-bak, who said he would consider subscribing to Twitter in a visit to the United States in June, will have to come up with a new cyber name other than "PresidentMBlee," which is his username on YouTube (www.youtube.com).
The Twitter account with the president's handle is being used by an anonymous Internet user, who makes no effort to hide his dislike for Lee, an unpopular figure in the blogosphere these days.
With Twitter becoming as widespread as other social networking services like Facebook (www.facebook.com) or MySpace (www.myspace.com), the search for well-known names often leads to false accounts.
Many of the imposters seem motivated by satirical commentary but others are apparently trying to see if they can profit from company's slow reactions to online media outlets. The owner of a Twitter account registered under "Inter Park," a Korean online shopping site, posted an e-mail address that is to be used specifically for "ID negotiations."
"There have been cases in other countries where companies, or well-known persons, paid the false-account holders to buy back the Twitter accounts that were registered under their names, and the same thing could happen in Korea too," said an official from an Internet company.
Other cases have seen ugly conflicts arise between celebrities, companies and the Twitter copycats. Tony La Russa, the veteran baseball manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, recently sued Twitter over an account created under his name.
La Russa complained that someone created the account and sent out "derogatory" remarks under his name, which damaged his reputation and caused him "significant emotional distress." The fake La Russsa account has been closed temporarily.
Unlike the case of regular Internet domains, Twitter accounts have no standards for resolving name disputes. The only action celebrities and companies can take is to report the illegitimate accounts to the Web service.
In some cases, that won't even get the job done. According to Twitter's "impersonation policy," parody accounts are permitted as long as the profile indicates they are not meant to be real.
Twitter and other micro-blogging services allow Internet users to broadcast their real-time status on computers and portable devices. More than 587,000 Korean Internet users visited Twitter accounts in June, compared with the 14,000 in January, according to Internet market research firm, Rankey.com (www.rankey.com).