Hailo [MyTaxi] is changing it's name again

Beta Ray Bill · 22-02-2019 1:40pm #1

So

Hailo [MyTaxi] is changing it's name again (2nd time in 2 years).
It's now going to be called: FREENOW

The name change comes as part of a merger between Daimler and BMW.

https://www.breakingnews.ie/business/mytaxi-app-to-change-name-for-second-time-two-years-906388.html

The taxi-hailing app MyTaxi is to change its name, for the second time in two years.

The app will become 'Free Now' later this year.

The company says the change is because its majority shareholder, Daimler, is joining forces with BMW.

The app will automatically become Free Now through an update but there is no time frame for the changeover.

They added that the merger will have no impact on customers data.

I'd say the marketing person responsible for the name change from Hailo to MyTaxi is now unemployed and is in fact unemployable.

The name Hailo commanded Brand awareness that you literally can not buy.
I'll google that
I'll tweet this
I'll hailo a taxi

You know what those Brands are, as they are used as a verb.

The new name FreeNow is appalling. Nothing in the name even gives away what the app is for.

How in the name of Jaysis did they come up with a name like that!? :mad:
Worst re-brand ever!?
I think this is worse than Marathon becoming Snickers.

GLaDOS · 22-02-2019 1:45pm

I thought the original rebrand was silly, and this is even worse.

At least MyTaxi, though not as clever as Hailo, made sense. Free Now is a woeful name.

Naos · 22-02-2019 1:47pm

grahambo wrote: »

I think this is worse than Marathon becoming Snickers.

WHAAAAAAAAAAT? :eek:

I've been searching high and low for a Marathon bar for the last 19 years!

victor8600 · 22-02-2019 1:48pm

GLaDOS wrote: »

Free Now is a woeful name.

Agreed! It is just some stupid corporate re-branding which means absolutely nothing. Unless from "Now" on they are going to drive people for "Free".

Sabre0001 · 22-02-2019 1:49pm

Just terrible...

hatrickpatrick · 22-02-2019 1:56pm

I'm going to make the wild assumption that "free now" doesn't mean their new service involves instant pickups and free journeys?

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts · 22-02-2019 2:00pm

Hailo was such a great name.

Just one of those perfect, deceptively simple names that you can’t believe nobody thought of before.

Like a podcast I used to follow by a terminally ill guy called ‘I’m Dying Here’.

Hercule Poirot · 22-02-2019 2:03pm

Never mind this nonsense, I still can't get over the change of Opal Fruits to Starburst

Fr_Dougal · 22-02-2019 2:04pm

They’re a mess of a company. Lynk are much better.

jester77 · 22-02-2019 2:07pm

Never heard of Hailo, but MyTaxi has been around for years and is very well known. This new name is not catchy at all.

maximoose · 22-02-2019 2:09pm

jester77 wrote: »

Never heard of Hailo, but MyTaxi has been around for years and is very well known. This new name is not catchy at all.

Hailo was the original, it rebranded to Mytaxi.

CrankyHaus · 22-02-2019 2:10pm

It's mad to think that a bunch of well-paid people with (on-paper) impressive qualifications managed to take something with the brand-recogntion of Hailo and flush it down the toilet at considerable cost. They could have appointed any randomer on the street and gotten better advice.

seamus · 22-02-2019 2:11pm

Yeah, this is more than a bit ridiculous.

Hailo was a great name, but their rationale for changing it was that "Hailo" meant nothing in other languages, and having a single brand across Europe was better business practice. Fair enough.

But they can't use that logic now. They don't have to change the name. Many companies offer the same service under multiple names.

I'd say taxi drivers will be telling them to GTFO after this and moving to Lynk. Lynx even has the yellow/black branding that freenow doesn't.

Also:

:D
https://twitter.com/RobGardner87/status/1098916064132513795

jester77 · 22-02-2019 2:12pm

maximoose wrote: »

Hailo was the original, it rebranded to Mytaxi.

you sure

I am more than positive that MyTaxi was the original, I know some of the guys working there for 7 or 8 years from near the start and it was definitely always MyTaxi. Can check here, they were founded in 2009.

SureYWouldntYa · 22-02-2019 2:13pm

maximoose wrote: »

Hailo was the original, it rebranded to Mytaxi.

It was bought by a bigger company who used the MyTaxi name

maximoose · 22-02-2019 2:14pm

jester77 wrote: »

you sure I am more than positive that MyTaxi was the original, I know some of the guys working there for 7 or 8 years from near the start and it was definitely always MyTaxi. Can check here, they were founded in 2009.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/hailo-brand-drives-off-into-sunset-as-mytaxi-arrives-1.2996766

Seems it existed in other countries before?

App went to absolute **** following this in my experience, completely unreliable. Was a big user of Hailo but when it changed I stopped using it after a few weeks.

gordongekko · 22-02-2019 2:16pm

jester77 wrote: »

you sure I am more than positive that MyTaxi was the original, I know some of the guys working there for 7 or 8 years from near the start and it was definitely always MyTaxi. Can check here, they were founded in 2009.

No hailo was taken over by mytaxi and renamed as mytaxi

D.Q · 22-02-2019 2:18pm

maximoose wrote: »

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/hailo-brand-drives-off-into-sunset-as-mytaxi-arrives-1.2996766

Seems it existed in other countries before?

App went to absolute **** following this in my experience, completely unreliable. Was a big user of Hailo but when it changed I stopped using it after a few weeks.

absolutely ****e. Hailo was brilliant, used it a alot. Mytaxi never works for me.

Grayson · 22-02-2019 2:19pm

gordongekko wrote: »

No hailo was taken over by mytaxi and renamed as mytaxi

yep. MyTaxi is a global brand name that took over local companies and subsumed them into the one brand. So th poster was right when they said Mytaxi had been around for a long time. It just hasn't been in ireland that long.

Wibbs · 22-02-2019 2:20pm

seamus wrote: »

Yeah, this is more than a bit ridiculous.

Aye, but having been on the periphery of and privy to a few rebrandings over the years it doesn't exactly come as a shock. In my experience they tend to come from someone at the top deciding they want a "change", then middle management gets involved in an arse licking contest and have loads and loads of longwinded meetings "going forward" and "paradigm shifting" and then someone somewhere(and back handers and benefit in kind are rife in this) brings in an outside design/marketing company at great expense who dazzle the grey suits in middle management with further meetings and powerpoint presentations(OHmiGod Finton, what sorcery is this, they didn't use templates!), which in turn usually results in bugger all actual change, or radical change that nobody wanted and looks and sounds shite.

Beta Ray Bill · 22-02-2019 2:20pm

jester77 wrote: »

you sure I am more than positive that MyTaxi was the original, I know some of the guys working there for 7 or 8 years from near the start and it was definitely always MyTaxi. Can check here, they were founded in 2009.

MyTaxi was founded in the Germany (Hamburg) in 2009
Hailo was founded in UK (London) 2011

Daimler acquired MyTaxi in 2014, and then bought Hailo in 2016 (despite Hailo having a much larger share of the market)

JohnnyFlash · 22-02-2019 2:23pm

Lynk is much better these days. Drivers are moving to them in droves.

sweetie · 22-02-2019 2:23pm

more name changes than Prince and Cheryl (girls aloud) combined.

seamus · 22-02-2019 2:24pm

Wibbs wrote: »

Aye, but having been on the periphery of and privy to a few rebrandings over the years it doesn't exactly come as a shock. In my experience they tend to come from someone at the top deciding they want a "change", then middle management gets involved in an arse licking contest and have loads and loads of longwinded meetings "going forward" and "paradigm shifting" and then someone somewhere(and back handers and benefit in kind are rife in this) brings in an outside design/marketing company at great expense who dazzle the grey suits in middle management with further meetings and powerpoint presentations(OHmiGod Finton, what sorcery is this, they didn't use templates!), which in turn usually results in bugger all actual change, or radical change that nobody wanted and looks and sounds shite.

Heh. Twitter is destroying them, pointing out the major marketing blunders that the suits don't even think about.

"Freenow" will not get past a lot of spam filters.

And if someone arrives in a country and sees a billboard with a picture of a hipster in a fedora, standing on top of a building beside "Freenow <squiggly line>", the last thing they're going to think is, "Taxis".

I don't get taxis much, but myTaxi definitely seemed poorer served than Hailo. What have most people moved to? Lynk?

retro:electro · 22-02-2019 2:25pm

Joining the likes of Circle K, ReStore and the likes in the word bingo makey uppy ridiculous corporate names.

It’s like something you’d text to get free credit. Text FREENOW to 50123 to avail of your €20 free vodaphone credit

Beta Ray Bill · 22-02-2019 2:30pm

seamus wrote: »

"Freenow" will not get past a lot of spam filters.

This is Gold!!!!

seamus wrote: »

And if someone arrives in a country and sees a billboard with a picture of a hipster in a fedora, standing on top of a building beside "Freenow <squiggly line>", the last thing they're going to think is, "Taxis".

They'll think: what a fu**ing tosser with his stupid hat

Gimme A Pound · 22-02-2019 2:31pm

This is only the first name change. It is terrible all right though.

And they'll get slated for it on social media - well not the folk who changed the name of course, just some poor marketing person who has probably never even met the name changing crowd.

Gimme A Pound · 22-02-2019 2:32pm

retro:electro wrote: »

Joining the likes of Circle K, ReStore and the likes in the word bingo makey uppy ridiculous corporate names.

It’s like something you’d text to get free credit. Text FREENOW to 50123 to avail of your €20 free vodaphone credit

I don't mind ReStore, but what sort of random shyte is "Circle K"?!

22-02-2019 2:42pm

The logo is a disgrace. Looks like someone spent two mins on it in MS PAINT.

TerrorFirmer · 22-02-2019 3:23pm

I want to believe it's all an elaborate hoax to drum up publicity....that nobody actually got handsomely paid to come up with such a god-awful name/logo so completely unfit for purpose.

Hailo was a brilliant name, MyTaxi less so, but Free Now....I want to hear the thought process behind that, and the equally abysmal new logo which looks like someone knocked it together, hungover, at 9pm on Thursday for the big Friday reveal.

They're certainly not short of publicity now anyway, on the other hand.

Fr_Dougal · 22-02-2019 3:30pm

We’ve got some great news!

Really? Great for who? Not great for the consumer who will probably have to download a new app like the last time you changed.

These companies seem to think that their customers are idiots.

‘Great news’ is a free €20 to spend on a taxi, not the mess you’ve made of yet another name change. Clowns.

Hailo [MyTaxi] is changing it's name again

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