Netflix May Have to Pay $100,000 for Qwikster Twitter Account
Chances are good at least one “d’oh!” was uttered in at least one Netflix conference room Tuesday morning.
It seems the company, which on Monday announced it would split up its service and rebrand the DVD-delivery side Qwikster, neglected to lock up the name on Twitter. Now Jason Castillo, who’s owned the @Qwikster name on the microblogging service since April, wants money — big money — to hand it over.
The little-used account, which had been dormant for over a month, now has more than 10,000 followers and is alive with the sounds of barely-legible, and sometimes NSFW, greed. And until early Tuesday, the profile picture on the account depicted Sesame Street character Elmo with what appears to a marijuana cigarette in hand, which is probably not exactly the image Qwikster had in mind for a logo.
Castillo has already been offered $1,000 for the account, but his demands are closer to the $100,000 range.
Ironically, since Twitter’s terms of service forbid selling user names, he may soon find himself banned — with Netflix getting the name for free.