Viral exchange over buying an Instagram handle raises the question: What’s the value of a username?

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the new Instagram handle to reflect a newlywed’s freshly updated last name. So what happens when it’s already taken?

Katherine Asplundh, formerly Driscoll — an influencer on TikTok and Instagram — married Cabot Asplundh of the prominent Pennsylvania billionaire tree service family over the weekend at a ceremony and reception in Palm Beach, Fla. She posted professional photos from the event — as one does. By Tuesday, Asplundh attempted to take the next digital rite of passage: swapping her Instagram handle from @katherinedrisc to @katherineasplundh.

But the username was already taken. What she did next prompted her to go unintentionally viral.

In a series of direct messages posted online and later reviewed by The Inquirer, Asplundh reached out to the other Katherine Asplundh, who goes by Kate on Instagram and uses the handle, @katherineasplundh.

“I was wondering if I could purchase your username from you?” Asplundh wrote. “[I] just got married and this is my new name!”

Kate responded, “Hi congrats! That’s my name too.”

Now, their private direct message spat has hit public channels, raising questions over who is entitled to an Instagram handle — and how much digital real estate is worth.

Personal branding on social media is important to content creators and online personalities — from both a sentimental and monetary standpoint. However, the space for social-centric branding is limited and becoming so scarce that people are beginning to take matters into their own hands, offering backdoor deals, a practice Instagram says could result in an account getting banned.

The value of an Instagram handle varies, depending on who’s asking and its desirability.

Over the years, brands have bought such handles as @coffee (now owned by the restaurant review company Infatuation) and @dogs (owned by Bark Box) from everyday users for tens of thousands of dollars. And everyday users will intentionally scoop up handles they think could prove lucrative, a similar practice to website domain squatting.

When it comes to the methods to acquire an already used Instagram handle, the rules and strategies are murky, at best.

According to Instagram, users are strictly forbidden from buying, selling, or transferring “any aspect of your account (including your username).” But that hasn’t stopped people from trying. As documented by Vox, an entire economy of buyers, sellers, agents, and pro flippers exists within the platform and on dedicated online marketplaces worldwide.

In theory, the social media handles are supposed to be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. It’s part of why parents began claiming social handles for their newborn children ASAP. And the battles can get ugly.

But in some cases, celebrities have used their star power to supersede the rules. In 2019, Kevin Keiley of West Sussex said Prince Harry and Meghan Markle took his @sussexroyal handle of three years. Instagram defended the reassignment, saying Keiley’s account was inactive.

In her DMs, Asplundh alleged that Kate’s account was basically dormant because of its low number of followers and posts. Kate said she uses the account as a secondary archival account.

You also don’t have to use your real name on Instagram, according to the platform’s terms of service. But you do have to keep your account up-to-date with personal information and can’t impersonate others.

In Kate’s case, she said she initially considered giving up her handle to Asplundh for free. But she claims Asplundh’s “attitude” threw her off.

In their back-and-forth Tuesday, Kate expressed concern that selling her username would get her banned from the platform.

Asplundh rebutted that she had purchased usernames in the past and “celebrities do it all the time.”

Then, the newlywed started questioning the legitimacy of Kate’s legal name, at one point requesting Kate to send “proof” that it’s her real name.

“I actually don’t believe that your name is Katherine Asplundh,” she wrote. “The family I just married into is the only Asplundh family in the U.S.” Kate insisted her name was real and that she didn’t owe Asplundh anything.

The Inquirer reached out to both parties for comment. Kate verified the Instagram correspondence between her and Asplundh to The Inquirer (providing a screen recording of herself opening the Instagram messaging tab and scrolling through the exchange). Asplundh did not respond as of publication time.

“I was open to giving her my username,” Kate told The Inquirer. “I just didn’t want to sell it because that would get me banned. After I replied to her, her messages came off snarky so I told myself, ‘OK, this isn’t worth it.’”

She replied to Asplundh: “I’m sorry we share the same name but just because you got married doesn’t mean you can have my username.”

Asplundh said in the direct messages that she reported Kate for impersonating her. Kate said she reported Asplundh for harassment and attempting to buy an account. Kate blocked Asplundh on Instagram.

The Katherines were at a digital impasse. That’s when things went public.

In the United States, Asplundh appears to be an uncommon name. (Kate told Asplundh in the DM exchange that she isn’t American, but declined to elaborate to The Inquirer.)

The Asplundh family of Willow Grove founded Asplundh Tree Expert, the 109th-biggest private company in the United States and the eighth-largest in Pennsylvania with $5.4 billion in revenue and more than 34,000 employees.

Notably, celebrity surgeon and former Senate candidate Mehmet Oz is part of the Asplundh family by marriage: His wife, Lisa’s, grandfather cofounded Asplundh Tree Expert in 1928 with his two brothers.

Katherine Asplundh married into the family by making things official with Cabot Asplundh, the grandson of Carl Asplundh Jr. The couple first met in Prague while Katherine was studying abroad and connected over growing up at the Jersey Shore, according to their wedding website. He proposed in Mantoloking, N.J., after two years together.

Kate — who says her name is Katherine J. Asplundh but declined to provide specifics or show a form of ID to The Inquirer, citing privacy concerns — said she didn’t know who Asplundh was until Googling her. When she saw other posts about Asplundh on the popular subreddit, r/NYCinfluencersnark, a Reddit page where members discuss and often criticize influencers, she opted to post screenshots of their exchange there.

“The whole thing just seemed silly and ridiculous to me. I thought they’d have a laugh and that would be it,” Kate told The Inquirer.

But the post devolved from a quick laugh into a barrage of hundreds of comments and thousands of upvotes, discussing who was wrong, picking apart Asplundh’s character, and users plotting out their next moves.

Asplundh’s wedding photos on her Instagram page were suddenly spammed by comments siding both with and against her.

“Team other Katherine,” one user wrote on one of Asplundh’s posts. “Hope you never get that handle,” said another. “You deserved the username, girlie,” said a third. By Wednesday morning, Asplundh made her Instagram account — which has about 12,000 followers — private. Hours later, she reversed this, returning her profile to public visibility, but with comments limited. At one point Kate pleaded with Redditors not to bully Asplundh. “I think she’s got the message,” she wrote.

Following the typical life cycle of irrelevant internet drama, the debacle made its way to other social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter), where a tweet about the exchange has been viewed more than seven million times, Instagram, and TikTok, where a video explaining the saga was seen nearly two million times.

For now, Kate and Asplundh’s respective Instagram handles remain unchanged.

But this fight isn’t about two women with the same name (allegedly). That part will be forgotten as the next line of normal gossip comes along. At its core, the Katherines’ argument fixates on the priceless value of digital real estate in an age heavily dependent on personal branding and social media presence.