What’s with the name Chitika?

May 7th, 2007

10 comments

Nothing in Chitika’s history has caused more intrigue than its name. From being lovingly labeled as “peddlers of produce” to giving a 1-hour phone presentation with the other side looking at the wrong domain, we’ve had our share of domain fun.

Read on for some interesting stories. There are definitely some lessons to be learned the next time you name your website or startup company.

So what does Chitika mean anyway?

The year is 2003 and Internet startups are dropping like hot potatoes. There we were (two geeks!) sitting at Wendys’ envisioning a company built around the concept of “Data Mining for Business Intelligence“. We brainstormed for hours on a name (essentially all variations of the word Digimine — cause the coolest company in our eyes at that time was Dr. Usama Fayyad’s Digimine). However, it’s tough to name your company when you don’t have a finished product or service. So in the end, Chitika co-founder Dr. Venkat Kolluri came up with a novel solution:
Let’s solve people’s problems “in a snap”. He then digs into his South Indian roots and came up with the word “Chitika” — which in his native language Telugu means “In a Snap“.

When you are starting off a new website or company and have nothing to show off yet — just piggy back off vague concepts (e.g. Chitika, Amazon, Accenture, etc)

We were told, “CHANGE THE NAME.”

Over the years as Chitika grew as a company, we had numerous people advising us to change the name (The logic ranging from “Hey, its so tough to remember” to “It rhymes with something dirty“). One person though stuck to her guns. Chitika advisory board member Meredith Hanrahan, CMO of salary.com, had a simple logic: Its tough to remember — but once somebody remembers it, they will never forget it.

It’s the Google Age, dude. How does the name even matter?

Well — that’s somewhat true. Google has significantly reduced the need to have a name people can remember. But there are some things that we have learnt along the way as to why the name matters.

Branding: Over the long run, there is nothing better than to have a service associated with your company name. There can be hundreds of companies selling cola — but they will all be considered as coke variants. So give yourself this chance. Rather than naming your company Acme Networks, build a brand.
Marketing: Having a weird name like Chitika really opens up the door for sweet marketing ideas. For example, at the last career fair our company attended, we handed out bananas as take-aways. Why bananas ? Cause half the non-techie world associates us with Chiquita — the banana producing company. So why not — lets play off that.

Over the life span of your website or company, your name is sure to cause much intrigue and pain. What matters most though is how well you leverage your name to meet your business goals. We are Chitika — and we are sticking to our bananas!

Comments are open .. please feel free to add your own domain or name stories.

Posted by Alden DoRosario (alden [at] chitika [dot] com)

This post was inspired by Jeremy Wright’s (b5 Media) up-skirt post for the Chitika BlogBash.

About the Author: Alden DoRosario is Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and co-founder of Chitika Inc. You can follow Alden on Twitter @adorosario and stay tuned to his insightful and often analytical posts on the blog. Alden is credited with coining the phrase "We are the AFLAC of online advertising"

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10 Responses to “ What’s with the name Chitika? ”

Tim Says:
May 7th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
I would imagine the second most popular question is “how the #$%^& do you pronounce Chitika?” In which case I got my answer in your video.
MB Chu Says:
May 7th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
We are Chitika — and we are sticking to our bananas!
LOL — So when will we see this statement in your tag line ? The “Turning page views into profits” is getting little old.
Michael Randall Says:
May 7th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
The site my wife and I run is PigPog, and the name started life as a cat.

We had a cat called Benson. His previous owner often called him ‘Benny Hedge-pig’ - no idea why. Over time, it went from Benny Hedge-pig to PigPog. Shortly after we started calling him PigPog, he was hit by a car and died.

When we tried to register a domain name, everything we could think of was taken, until we tried PigPog.
Becom er Says:
May 8th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
PigPog - cool name!
Chitika - I cannot articulate!
Alden DoRosario Says:
May 8th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
MB Chu said> So when will we see this statement in your tag line?

Heh — sorry. We lost the Photoshop file for the Chitika logo. So we can’t change anything in the logo right now :-)
Carl Taylor Says:
May 8th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
I know that company names can be critical to their success, at least in the restaurant business. We had a wonderful buffet restaurant named “Po’ Folks” that went under in less than a year. We had another restaurant named “Mud Bugs” that served Cajun food. It lasted less than a year. I didn’t even go to that one. People just do not want to walk in to some place that has an awkward name.
The Chitika Blog » Blog Archive » Top 5 Mistakes Made When Naming Your Website or Company Says:
May 9th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
[...] It’s nice party talk to explain to people how your company name means “Dancing Gazelles” in the African Zulu language. Problem is: Two seconds later, they forget the name. That’s not a nice thing the next time they need to refer your website or service to a prospective customer. At Chitika, we initially fell into this category. Luckily over time, our phonetic resemblance to chiquita, the well-known banana company, actually worked in our favor — as people always remembered the brand. [...]
blognet06 Says:
May 12th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
Chitika…I love it! An apt Telugu word that serves the purpose beautifully. For those cribbing about it being difficult to pronounce or remember, move out of your comfort zones! Chitika is not as difficult to pronounce as it is made out to be. Chiquitita takes longer to say. If the name itself takes up so much of mind space that people take the time out to write comments on it, then Chitika has achieved some level of stickability ….not to mention the huge popularity it is gaining with bloggers. Go Chitika!
Make Money Online: Weekly updates 12-May-2007 Says:
May 13th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
[...] What Chitka means? - Chitika means "in a snap" Read more on how Chitika founders settled with this name. [...]
The Chitika Blog » Blog Archive » Top 5 Mistakes Made When Naming Your Website or Company Says:
June 30th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
[...] the next time they need to refer your website or service to a prospective customer. At Chitika, we initially fell into this category. Luckily over time, our phonetic resemblance to chiquita, the well-known banana [...]