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TransferWise changes name to Wise

wise.com

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Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#211

Post by emp_ »

climb_stealth wrote: post #94
emp_ wrote: post #91

Great Timing! USERS BEWARE, my story I used the service for two years and just had the most surreal disastrous experience since the year flipped. I religiously send a the same (about 5k USD) to my home country every month so I can pay my mortgage and other bills I left when moved to NA. 2021 arrives, I start a transfer on January 27, days pass, nothing. I contact support 10 days later (of something that in the past 2…

Thanks for the warning! Have you decided on what you are going to use instead?

Going to try Xoom next, looking at conversion rates plus the big name behind (Paypal) which is not short of horror stories themselves.

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#212

Post by ajonit »

For the kind of service they provide, transfer.com would have been better. (Of course if it all it was possible)

Nonetheless, not a bad idea, as companies grow they all want the shortest possible brandable .com domain. I remember seomoz.com rebranded to moz.com for few million $$.

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#214

Post by drewzero1 »

richeyryan wrote: post #202
jarek83 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Seriously, have you ever seen a rebrand negatively affect a product? I think there is an example in Europe. myTaxi has been rebranded to FREE NOW. The change has been dictated to free the brand from just the taxi business connection. But I believe it was unfortunate, at least for their taxi business. I don't have hard numbers, but the new name and logo seems to be random, completely unrelated to taxis, so when you…

In Ireland the app went from being Hailo to MyTaxi to Free Now. Personally I loved Hailo. It became a verb and it was common to say "I'm going to Hailo now". Now it's "I'm going to FreeNow... now". It just doesn't sound as smooth. I still use it but I really feel like Hailo was the ideal name.

Hailo sounds like an extremely clever name for a taxi app, since (at least in US English) one might "hail" a traditional taxi. FreeNow seems clunkier to use as a verb, plus it doesn't seem to connect to the service at all. (Unless the taxi ride is free now!)

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#215

Post by richeyryan »

drewzero1 wrote: post #214
richeyryan wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Ireland the app went from being Hailo to MyTaxi to Free Now. Personally I loved Hailo. It became a verb and it was common to say "I'm going to Hailo now". Now it's "I'm going to FreeNow... now". It just doesn't sound as smooth. I still use it but I really feel like Hailo was the ideal name.

Hailo sounds like an extremely clever name for a taxi app, since (at least in US English) one might "hail" a traditional taxi. FreeNow seems clunkier to use as a verb, plus it doesn't seem to connect to the service at all. (Unless the taxi ride is free now!)

Yeah, it worked well. I guess the problem you have is, once you're international, your clever name loses its impact. It was a common joke at the time Free Now launched that the taxis should be free alright.

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#216

Post by mam2 »

colincooke wrote: post #12

I love transferwise, depend on it often. I don't get the rebrand, their old name was descriptive, easy to google, and from all perspectives really good. The rebrand won't change me using it, but I really can't see the positive in this.

I think it may be beause of "Transfermate" which does similar things. When i read the title i didn't know if it was the serviced i used 2 years ago.

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#217

Post by LynxInLA »

scrollaway wrote: post #147
colincooke wrote: post #12

I love transferwise, depend on it often. I don't get the rebrand, their old name was descriptive, easy to google, and from all perspectives really good. The rebrand won't change me using it, but I really can't see the positive in this.

Prediction: zero negative will come out of the name change or redesign, and three years from now they'll be bigger than ever. I'm long on them and they haven't even IPO'd yet. Can't wait for them, and Stripe. Seriously, have you ever seen a rebrand negatively affect a product? Rebrands have to be thought about retrospectively: you need to think whether it would make sense to go from the new to the old. Number26 for e…

Netflix rebranding their DVD business as "Qwikster" for about a month comes to mind. That was more substantial than just a rebrand.

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#218

Post by malinens »

WA wrote: post #208
porker wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Seriously, have you ever seen a rebrand negatively affect a product? The pandemic coming along masked it, but I think the Realtimeboard to Miro rebrand did. They went from a clearly defined value proposition in the name to a nothing-word. For software that was installed on desktops, so the name and icon changed. n=1 but I still have to stop and think which app I want to open for a realtime whiteboard.

Piwik to the new name I can't remember. But maybe that's just me.

actually I had problems with package managers when piwik rebranded to mamoto (or matomo?). they renamed all their libraries and it messed up our package proxy server because of that

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#219

Post by ranguna »

nickpp wrote: post #189
ranguna wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, then don't wake me up. I know it's hard to imagine this if you've never experienced it, but be a little tolerable to the parts of the world where this happens, including where I'm leaving in right now

I actually live in the EU, and I lived in a communist country before so I have enough experience with your "dream". Sooner or later it turns into a nightmare. As Margaret Thatcher said, the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.

I'm sorry that it has turned into a nightmare for you.

It's easy to quote someone how was directly opposing the socialist movement and socialism and communism is not really the same thing, is it ?

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#220

Post by rodiger »

sangnoir wrote: post #209
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But at least "TransferWise" is unique, clearly about money, easily searchable, and defendable as a trademark. "Wise" is very generic, and worse my guess is that they'll have a hell of a time defending that trademark.

Trademarks are granted within specific fields, so they won't have any trouble defending it against people providing related goods and service (banking/finance/transfers) using a similar mark. The won't be able to defend against someone else using "Wise" in a different field (say, an education platform) but that is as designed. It is unfortunate that large corporations overzealously "defend" their trademarks against a…

that's a rough one to defend when this exists: https://www.wise.us/
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