Morning folks!!
In September
2006 .mobi was released. I did not think much of the extension. Just another
dotcom wannabe. I laughed as most are still doing and moved
on. Then about 3 weeks later another thought occurred to me and I made a quick
about face. What did I see? If I tell ya, I’d have to kill ya. But at that
moment I saw something that would allow only a very NARROW but hugely
successful amount of .mobi’s that could change the world. Besides the obvious
company names and trademarks that would be snapped up by their respective companies, I identified less than
10 generic domains that could have great value in the future. The one that led
my list was Tickets.mobi. It joined flowers.mobi which was also in the list.
Why? Well, let’s look at how these two industries were transformed by the
internet, perhaps more than most or even all others. 20 years ago when I would
call 1-800-FLOWERS, I bought stuff but would never see it. The Internet changed
that. I finally had a visual to go with the dollar amount. That transformed the
buying experience for millions. Same with tickets. Before, you would call an
800# and got what you got after cross examining the operator on the other end
of the phone line. The Internet gave me the visual and now we can all see the
exact seat we get.
So as I sat
and identified the industries that could once again be transformed by .mobi,
the list was short and narrow. But like other things, IDEAS come about and that
short and narrow list is likely to fatten up.
For example, last Tuesday night, Jim McCann said they were working on a system that you will
be able to send a “Virtual Bouquet” to someone sitting in a nightclub you might
be at. So never discount how things can be transformed by a new idea. Will that
happen at flowers.com? No.They have a separate site for that. Today a dotcom.
Tomorrow……who knows. Especially when matched up with GPS or as a default
extension. Do any of us know how this will unfold? No. But it does not stop
folks from putting blinders on and actively rooting against something. Step
back folks. Don’t be guilty of the same things others have done to you. Open minds
seize opportunities that closed minds will never see.
Now that I got the #1 .mobi I have aimed for since
day one, (Tickets.mobi) it will be interesting to see how the old guard
domainers learn I am a big .mobi fan. (No surprise for some) I see it as the
next best extension to dot com and really nobody needs to agree with me. The
more folks disagree, the more I know I am on the right track. So save the
naysaying for 5 years not 5 minutes. Then we can discuss why so many of my good
friends missed such a winner. They will just say…..”Damn, Rick was right again.”
Here is the
reality. In 5 years the domain may be worth between $0 and $60,000. It may also
be worth between $60,000 and $60 million. I decided to place my bet on the
latter. Place your bets where you may. At the end of the day, I will trust my
gut more than any other set of factors. My gut says this will be a $60,000 loss
or the single biggest payday of my life. Only had that feeling a few times before.
Porno.com, Men.com, Candy.com, Property.com, Tickets.mobi. So then the question
becomes: “Why did I buy flowers.mobi for more than tickets.mobi? The answer is
pretty simple. Flowers.mobi was the only other .mobi released that was in my
top 10 list and since tickets.mobi was not yet out there, I wanted a foot in
this door. Porn.mobi was also on the short list as is sex.mobi and some other obvious
ones. Domainers will not decide if .mobi hits or not. Businesses across the
world will decide. They may see it as a way to capture another market. Another generation. They may see things we don't see. The thing that will decide the future of .mobi is not domainers. It is businesses across the world and advertising dollars spent.
btw, the FIRST question that Jim McCann asked me was 'What did I think
about .mobi?' I told him it is too early to tell. The answer won't reveal
itself for 3-5 years. What folks did not know when he was there is that Jim
McCann was the LONGEST domainer in the room. He started in 1992!! While others are still struggling with their initial sites and online presence, here we have Mr. Cutting Edge himself and his focus comes down to one word, 'Mobile'! Their focus for the future is the mobile, on the go, younger audience. Will that help .mobi? Stay tuned!
Have a GREAT Day
Rick Schwartz
Jeff Schneider
This whole documentary reads like a mystery story. Its juicy and will attract a lot of bees, moths,humans,and every other metaphor I can conjure up in my curious mind. Who will unlock the truth? Gosh if this were a book it would be a best seller! Good luck and congratulations my friend. Isn’t it curious how often history repeats itself LOL Jeff Schneider
Trond
Hi,
Very interesting take, it is certainly going to be exciting to follow the extension over the next few years.
By the way – the forum at http://mobility.mobi/ is a great resource for .mobi enthusiasts, as it offers serious discussion on topics related to the extension (I have no affiliation besides being a fairly new member).
Regards,
Trond
KW Boswell
Rick,
I hope we don’t have to wait another 4 years until you make a Leap Year revelation known!
Actually, anyone who really listens/reads what you say, (go back and spend time catching up if you haven’t already) can see it sooner.
Mobile Internet, and with it especially the dotMOBI guidelines and applications will change, assist and grow what was started in the late 20th century.
Thanks for telling.
kw
Pooptooth.mobi
Most .mobi owners are smart individuals that see the wisdom of what .mobi offers.
It’s nice to have validation from such a credible and successful source.
Rudy
Kevin the Domainer has a great take on this at:
http://www.stripcreator.com/comics/kevinthedomainer/423998
RB
Nice to hear this take on .mobi from a domainer pro.
I have always thought .mobi has a chance to make it, given how mobile internet is in it’s early stages, and it seems like a natural extension for a mobile site.
You’re right, .mobi hasn’t made it yet, but the potential is definitely there.
Another example of good .mobi’s are first names, people might want John.mobi or Sarah.mobi to be reached on their mobile device.
Place your bets!
JohnDaniels
Hmmm. Sounds familial. dot .ws, get your .ws website today. dot to, gogo toto direct, the revolutionary travel domain. dot tv, get the world premiere new domain. I understand theres a need to pump this domain because you have the best names. I’ve said this before, there wont be development, so there wont be type ins. Its like speculation, the”0 to 60 million” statement is speculation. There is no inherent value on .mobi, there is no traffic generated from it, it is just another domain ending to the public. And you ever notice how less and less significant domainn name endings really are? Basically, all types of content are found on all extentions. .com is safe, then .net and i think .biz is the sleeper hit.
Art
I will tell you why it wont make it. Here is my prediction: People dont like to remeber too much stuff, we have already too much going on in our lifes. They know 3 extentions .com and .org and .edu, some heard of .net
The rest is mystery. There is no reason to think that they will jump up on 4 letter extension, when m.LLLLLL.com works just as well. You looking from domainer prospective not from peoples eyes.
Robert Franks
Dot Mobi WILL NEVER have critical mass. Why? It’s simple. As technology advances, websites will SOON be able to determine if the browser is a mobile device or a computer and display the content accordingly (cnn.com already does this to some extent). Further, mobile devices will continue improving such that they can read the same web page a comptuer can (i.e. iPhone). Therefore, the user will only have to remember Dot Com and not have to bother with Dot Mobi.
In the future, nobody will be talking about .Mobi except for the domain investors who got burned.
RF
Michael Castello
Rick may be a true oracle. I never had much hope for .mobe but today Fox News was promoting foxnews.mobi on the air. Remember it was corporate America’s advertising budgets that helped .com become what it is today.
The people will decide if .mobi will be the future for mobile access. It is a numbers game and I am still not sure the mass public will relearn or use a different impulse trigger for access to the web. The younger generation may but we will have to wait and see how it plays out.
For a few thousand I would take the gamble and hedge my bet.
Robbie Ferguson
Hey Rick,
The.mobi is going to be BIG!
Everyone that has mobile or iphone surfs the web and .mobi is the best place to have your site online.
I own a few names in the .mobi but parking revenues are low in comparison to the .com but I know in time they shall come on board. Tickets.mobi and Flowers.mobi shall make you money but you know best that time shall tell.
Also anyone got some advice on hiding your IP address? I know there are services but anyone got a recomendation?
Let me know.
Cheers
Robbie
Vincent Furey
The most important thing you said in your post is”So save the naysaying for 5 years not 5 minutes.” I purchased the .mobi domains that I own during pre-registration. Being in the mobile software & mobile marketing industry I can tell you firsthand that 2008 has so far been an absolute tsunami with advertising budgets for mobile marketing like, quadrupling. Advertising drives everything. When most of the fortune 5 adverts are spending in the tens of millions a year on mobile (maybe in 2 more years), the .mobi domains we own will be worth more than .coms.
mobiEnthusiast
My username is a giveaway, but I like developed .mobi sites. They are light, they give you great information on a phone, and they are portable. I think it’s easy to remember .mobi, it’s mobile without the”le” at the end. Thanks for your post Rick, I always enjoy your insight.
Andy
I almost bought a dot mobi after reading all the bull crap hype. What the hell was i thinking? There is NO traffic…the average person does not even know what a dot mobi is. 99.99% of people have never ever typed in a dot mobi address ever.
I am so soooo glad i did not buy a dot mobi.
If you did get suckered into buying this hype, my advise is to sell it now before the hype dies down and there are no sucker buyers left in the market.
dot com rules…ask any normal person on the street…have they ever typed a dot mobi address… 99.99% will tell you NOPE.
Gary aka newdomainer
I take my hat off to you Rick… you kept it for a rare old day… Feb 29th ;-)
The more I read the negative crap about dotmobi – typically the kind off stuff just above my post here – the more confident & comfortable I am with my decision to back dotmobi right back to September ’06
The naysayers just don’t get it do they? .com, this .tv that & what the **** is a .Edu when it’s at home? never used one in my life… there has never been a truly mobile internet before how can people say there’s no traffic, that no sites will be built?
Am I being super thick or what? There isn’t any traffic because people don’t surf the web on the move yet (ok, those that do, do.. but most by far don’t…. yet!
Such an important little word that one… ‘YET’… you’d never know just how significant that little word could be would you? ;-)
The point is that there are 100’s of extensions – all serving some arbitrary niche on the same platform (the desk-top web)
There is one global TLD for mobile devices…
you can put mobile content on any device using any TLD as long as its compliant… but with most sites not compliant how do you tell?
Ah, of course… you use the sites that have .mobi after the name – kind of gives the game away doesn’t it?
Now, what with all the pin numbers I have to remember & all the passwords & all the combination locks & birthdays & anniversaries & the kids 1st day at school, mothers day… On top of all that how the hell am I supposed to remember what the MOBIle internet uses for its MOBIle content? God, thats a tricky one… There must be clue in the name… anyone care to help me here? I’m after the logical & supposedly memorable TLD that is for MOBIle internet..
Darn! I give up… there’s no way I can remember that.. you what? you say its.. really, gosh I’d never have guessed… DOT M O B I you say… what does that spell?
‘MOBB-EE’ perhaps?
‘Mobe’ ?
‘MOAB-EYE’ ?
You say it’s ‘MOBI’ as in ‘Mobey Dick’ – gosh thats confusing, they’ve even altered the obvious pronunciation – it ought to be ‘mobile’ without the ‘le’ at the end – pron; ‘Moab-eye’ surely..
‘Mobey’ – Nah! I’ll never remember that.. the public aren’t clever enough to cope with that.. I mean the average person knows how many phone numbers by heart… can recite their bank details, driver number, 1st car reg… all those other tricky numbers.. National Insurance numbers..
God, you’d have to be a blooming”Savant” to remember that dot mobi is for the MOBIle internet… most people don’t have the intellectual capacity to recall that kind of information… jeez.. they even have to make the petrol inlet for petrol (gas) smaller than on diesel cars to stop people putting the wrong fuel in!
That last comment of Andys.. it’s like a 1980’s market research team saying to people ‘have you ever used a computer? – Reply: ‘No’
Conclusion: computers won’t take off… no-ones used one before! ;-)
Doh! – They need a computer first don’t they.. I didn’t think that this is a cart & horse question / aka the chicken or the egg question ;-)
I think some of the posts are either very tongue in cheek…. I’m sure Andys’ just pulling our chain with those comments..
Robert & JD… you don’t really think that do you?
Have you looked at an iphone? it’s not about how you can fit the internet on a small screen… the futures about how we can build an internet FOR the small screen… it’s wholly complimentary to what exists today… this isn’t a domain war for superiority, it’s a new level entirely… or it will be when it’s rolled out & adopted (a bit like the internet was all those short years ago!)
Lets finish with a quick maths lesson… a screen thats 14″ by 12″
(a typical 19″ screen)
Is 168 square inches
Now lets look at a screen on a decent portable device… my Nokia tablet will do… the screens bigger than most MOBIles out there at 3.5″ x 2″
Oooh thats a big number to work out.. gosh thats ermm
like around 7 square inches.
Now, lets look at those two innocent little numbers the BIG number 168
The ickle ickle one is 7.
Can anyone here spot the difference? Don’t shout out please, put your hand up like a good boy (or girl)..
Whats the ratio between one & t’other?
24
Good programme that! – Wrong 24!
Small screen – give or take is 24 times smaller than a std monitor.
24x 24 times… it doesn’t matter which way you look at it – anything thats different by a factor of 24 is pretty different I should say..
How come… the screen was 14″ against 3.5″ – that’s only 4x
Oh dear, I’ve messed up… how can a screen thats just 4x bigger have an area 24x bigger?
Don’t argue with me… I’m no math tutor…
But, ladies & gentleman of the jury…. this is precisely why we are about to see the growth of a new TLD for small screen devices… because the only way to squeeze 168 into 7 is to start from the ground up & make something that is perfectly ‘7’ compliant… enjoy your 168 when you get home or in the office… hell, go the whole hog & use a 24″ monitor – the trend at home & the office is BIGGER screens…
The area of a 24″ monitor; Hell, I make that around 504″ thats ‘five hundred and four inches’
Against my ‘7’ OMG I feel so inadequate now.. look at you with your 504 and me with my little 7… but hey, it’s perfectly formed – who said size matters..
Come on people.. will one naysayer, just one… please come up with a sound argument against dotmobi… please, please please… OR SHUT THE **** UP ;-)
I can just picture the situation now… skin flint company; developing their”all things to all men” internet presence;
Hey Mr Web developer… I’ve got this idea for a web site… I want it to look great on a 504 square inch monitor but also look the business on 7 square inches… uhu, yeh, thats what I said.. hey let go of me… thats the door.. what you doing to my jacket?… ok, ok, I’m going..
See yah!
Wouldn’t want to be yah ;-)
Ok, if you have a .com… go get the dotmobi for your mobile presence (if you want one of course, it’s not an obligation… I mean it took me years to get a fax machine, a few years to get a mobile phone (1990 – can you believe it), then a computer… I was even late arriving at the internet… computer games? me? no way.. but can I see that there is going to be competition out there from every buiness.com versus business.net versus business.co.uk versus business.de versus business.cn etc.. for the one & ONLY business.mobi?
Seems like a recipe for disaster… winner takes all; now isn’t that just how it happened for .com?
Sorry… I’m just in one of those moods today! ;-)
Perfectday.mobi
Bob
No one has to type in any of my mobi domains. My developed mobi sites, and I have hundreds live and more to come, are getting nicely indexed by Google, thank you. And my stats show a nice steady increase in traffic, month after month after month.
M. Menius
“Domainers will not decide if .mobi hits or not. Businesses across the world will decide. They may see it as a way to capture another market. Another generation.” – Rick
Rick, you have a knack for cutting through the noise. Myself, I’ve actually come to enjoy the naysayers. Comic relief is their unwitting gift of the day.
Calculated risks are justified after considering the extent of the upside, and as you point out, the .mobi payday is not expected to be immediate. dotMOBI is the opportunity many domainers missed by relying on yesterday’s trends/logic.
Damir
Interesting and straight to the point post.
Great story
Dave Wrixon
Rick, I would have to guess you hit on the fact that these names have seven letters which corresponds to the number of phone digits behind the area code.
Unfortunately, your arguments are largely self-defeating. If you need these to be adopted by large Corporates across the board, why does that mean”I saw something that would allow only a very NARROW but hugely successful amount of .mobi’s that could change the world”?
The bottom line is that dot Mobi was born of the concept that the Mobile Internet Space would, due to limitation of hardware and its associated software, be an almost completely separate and independent online environment.
The premise behind this assumption has proven to be totally false, so the large corporates have moved on and it is now time for domainers to do the same. In your own words,”Where is the Traffic”?
Yes, the Internet is going to sub-divided in distinct segments, but it is language content that is going to partition it, not access devices. Right Race. Wrong Horse!
James
Ever noticed how those who knock someone, for standing up and being counted, never put forward their own vision of the future?
Well, they don’t.
Because they don’t have one.
Herd mentality, along with jealousy, clouds their eyesite.
As far as .mobi is concerned, their arguments are getting discounted one by one.
Remember when they cried ‘fix’ when you bought flowers?
The amazing thing is, they still haven’t learnt to keep their mouths shut!
Here’s to the future – they can keep the past!
UFO.ORG
.mobi is no better than any other extension.
.mobi only becomes hugely successful if all mobile device ISP providers (Teleco’s) adopt it as a default URL without the need to type in an extension.
However, there are so many legal issues with this that it won’t happen. To dictate the extension effectively takes ownership of the underlying word and raises huge legal issues.
Teleco’s could possibly get away with having the .com as a default extension as there would be no vested financial interest (Telco’s backing .mobi has already set the legal connection) and .com was first and invariably owned by the largest of companies (A number of which don’t own the .mobi Adidas is an example – and we know their propensity to protect their brand).
Telco’s on mobiles may never shortcut the URL extension, however this then means the average user must type in the .mobi extension and there is insufficient user knowledge/will to override .com
What will happen (I believe) is that large corporates will simply roll out the .com/mobile path) and Teleco providers will update their software to detect this first).
Too many domainers in my belief are somewhat blinkered in their approach, Teleco’s will go for the easiest and most profitable avenue to make money. It won’t be fighting corporates on trademark issues, and isn’t via making money out of .mobi extension. It is more likely through the buying of items on mobile networks with the purchases being debited to monthly billing accounts – ie acting as a credit card company and making profits there.
If you ask me whether I’d take the $60k and run or the $60m, I’d take the $60k.
johndaniels
RE: … Further, mobile devices will continue improving such that they can read the same web page a comptuer can (i.e. iPhone). Therefore, the user will only have to remember Dot Com and not have to bother with Dot Mobi.
Yes this may be true. What about the next series of domain name endings> and the next>? and the next? and the next? ICANN is already onr ecord that they are going to ‘liberalize’ the internet with a flood of useless domain name endings. They will attempt to categorize the web by name endings, but this is reality; there is no categorization; just a bunch of lame splash pages. I have to say this because of the attempt to pump a particular domain name ending over, say, .biz or .info. You would be buying blue sky speculaiton on .mobi. .mobi is in and of itself an atiquated attempt to keep up with technology: and everyone knows technology ages extremely fast. .mobi is dated and obsolete, if it hasnt taken off by now, it never will: because the next series of name endings will dilute it….just like all the other name endings.
johndaniels
Off Topic: regarding the bill proposed by those ignorannt politicians. If anyone posts on the ICANN forums: lets raise their awareness on this. We may be able to get some international resistance to this bill: as US legislation should not be allowed to dictate the overall direction and policy of domains, unilaterally. also the registration cmpanies better get involved too: it effects all their bottom lines. If this is passed, second tier domains may be abandoned and not renewed. We all need to raise awareness.
DomainerPro
I’ve never seen any issue that arouses as much debate among domainers as the .mobi question. Everyone seems to have an opinion and to express it vociferously.
Not long ago I wrote a blog post with tips for buying domain names. I worked hard on it and handed over some real secrets. One reader, however, seemed to see nothing except that I had recommended buying dot coms”and maybe a premium dot mobi or two”. The reader blasted me for not being giddy about dot mobis.
Me, I don’t know. I own 30 reasonably good mobis that I bought in pre-reg (such as JobAds.mobi and DigitalVideos.mobi) , and I’m waiting. If they take off, great. If not, it’s just one egg basket.
Michael Castello
There are two separate issues here for me. One is the development of the web which for me .COM works just fine. It has all those things which I will not regurgitate here. The second is “domain names” which include every TLD now and in the future. I think of those names as gamble/investment/portfolio trends.
In the past I never would have registered an I-this.com, E-That.com, U-want.com but look how it has made money for Rick with IReport.com. I also, would rarely in the past have registered .net, .org .mobi .uk, etc. but look how much investors are making on them.
This brings me to my point. Are we all arguing about making money or building out the internet? And no, they are not the same. They have become to distinctly different subjects that have evolved over the years between the public and the investor.
Does one hurt the other? I don’t think so. The public will decide how to navigate the internet and domain buyers will find ways to make incredible money from domain names. There is less speculation on either side then most think. They both function very well. I tend to own domain names but see a vision of a developed web. Others look at their domain names as investments and see the worth of their portfolios in how other investors might see them. It all works for me.
Matthew Nelson
look at all these comments..
always lots of opinions and interest when anyone says .mobi..
down the road, that usually means something really good or really bad.
Ray Patterson
This is a fact:
I get more traffic on my developed mobi sites then any other extension, including dot com!
Matthew Nelson
@ Michael
“Are we all arguing about making money or building out the internet”
often the argument is about both like they are the same..
the very same people that said no .mobi would be worth the $60 registration during the first-come first-serve landrush period now have moved on to other arguments.
congratulations especially to all the landrush mobi’ers that registered cheap quality keywords and have hedged their bets. you now have little or nothing to lose.
M. Menius
@Michael
“It all works for me.”
I appreciate the fact that successful people can look beyond their own unique path to success. To me, the open-minded approach to domain investing draws on the strength of one’s flexibility. Opportunity is like a tree with many branches.
@Matthew
“congratulations especially to all the landrush mobi’ers”
Getting in on landrush (early acquisition) is half the game, imo. That’s the vision and speculation part – risk vs. reward ratio projected forward … with never a guarantee, just a measured/calculated decision.
David Wrixon
Domainers need to understand that”building-out” and”development” of extensions is hog-wash.
Nothing happens until Big Business spends Big Bucks. If major corps really do start pushing dot Mobi on their TV commercials, then dot Mobi investors are minted. If not then they will be screwed. Nothing anybody says or does in the meantime will make a damned bit of difference.
We have had a similar story with IDN. Those developing IDN did alright for a bit but most of them hit the Google sandbox. There are hundreds of thousands of IDN sites, but that is not bringing the change of gear that we are looking for.
What does matter in the case of IDN is browser support. As soon as that arrives in an force then we see some type in the dot Com extension. Very little in anything else. Major corps are using IDN to build websites, but to date what is missing is the off-line advertising of these domains. That will either happen or it won’t. If it does we are minted. If not we are screwed. PERIOD.
UFO.ORG
Big corporates like to keep their brand dilution to a minimum. Most corporates do not own every conceivable extension and as such, with the non .com extensions they tend to point them to a subdomain of their .com. If they keep everyone on .com it makes their legal issues less, the more scattered their users the more likely they have to fight cybersquatters on non .com extensions.
Big business will promote the .mobi a bit. Their marketing departments are always keen to assess feedback (marketing metrics) a bit, and using a .mobi can help in certain situations. But make no bones about it, they won’t ditch the .com and it will always comprise +95% of marketing spend that relates to extension promotion.
Lastly, people ask why some of us vermently argue against the proponents of the extension, well, I have a sneaking suspicion that some of us want a balanced view rather than all one way hype. Perhaps we should just sit back and let you all buy gold picks. However, as was mentioned, we can all convince ourselves as domainers to what the future is, but it’s dictated by big corporates and their marketers.
Lastly, I do think .mobi has potential, but the owner will need to develop a business and then market it. While remembering that traffic will end up going to the .com. interestingly, a .mobi site could have an extension that was .mobi/static and serve the appropriate info for desktops on the same basis as the .com/mobile will do.
Strategically, a smart .mobi owner for a generic word such as flowers could engage in dilution marketing, and sneak traffic away from the .com (if users are sufficiently exposed to enough marketing), but, its likely the amount of marketing spend would add up to more than buying the .com. The .com is free surf on natural traffic (And a lot of money has achieved that goodwill – That’s why .com is valuable in the first place).
Very very lastly, ask ANY non domainer that is a techie (And I know some major players) they always say they’ve never heard of .mobi and state that mobile devices can read the websites if they are formatted correctly, you don’t need a URL for that (I.e. it’s a technology issue and not a domain issue, the domain issue would only exist if technology could not rectify the issue – .com/mobile achieves that, its just a bit of Java programming!!!!!).
Mik
Mobi is what got me started in domainig believe it or not and I picked up a nice qty of them for future development and resale. I am pumped to see the recognition mobi is getting form the big players.
I also own the typo of Ricks flowers.mobi, flowres.mobi, want to negotiate for it RS? I would have emailed you direct but I have no contact info.
all the best mobiers!
Don M
I guess you could sum it up by comparing it to a stock. Very similar except the .mobi has a better risk to reward factor. A great return for the year on a stock would be 30-50%. Boring when you see the .mobi could return 200 times your money in 5 years. Looking at the two, the stock is more stable, though the domain is more risky. I like the risk to reward with .mobi because it is so very high.
Or put your money into the banking stocks and watch it lose another 20%.
during the next 6 months. Or put it into the market this week and watch it drop another 500 points.
All I know is that .mobi is going to be around for a while, everyone is watching it, over 30 posts alone on this article.
David Wrixon
If you have a high risk to reward ration, it means one of two things.
1) Most people don’t get something that should be blinding obvious.
or
2) It really is that risky.
The problem is that dot Mobi is so blindingly obvious, that it could just be Fool’s Gold.
Robb
Two more big business .mobi sites were just announced, Priceline.mobi and RBC.mobi (biggest bank in Canada).
Believe that big business is pushing and using .mobi, because IT IS happening.
charles a dutton c.s.c
Rob- this is great news. Can you walk us through how Priceline MOBI works?
Also- this big business push… is that where we are going to see investors rewarded, you know for having the brains corporate didn’t to jump on these domains and hold them to cash in on the day they come to their senses?
mobisite
Rick, I would love you to do a follow-up post about .mobi
There are so many people with vested interests suppressing real information about .mobi being shared on the forums etc.
The fact is major firms are adopting and taking on. We’re talking billion dollar compnies by the barrel load. (see the link below, next to ‘posted by:’)
this is just a taste in the link
some major firms have more .mobis than they do other urls. disney are going that way and volvo!
can you say how many you own, and if you plan on acquiring more?
this post was february 2008, 15 months on, I and hundreds of others would love to see another post from you.
Thanks
Mark
There seems to be several trends with .mobi domains-
1. As can be seen on your mobisite link above there is substantial adoption among big corporations.
2. Aftermarket sales of .mobi domains are pathetically low.
3. Besides the big corps above there is not a ton of mobile content out there YET.
4. .mobi TLD still isn’t a widely known term.
5. The mobile web is in its infancy, but is expected to be the main global gateway to the web in the near future.
Put all that together and…
Not sure.
Could go either way. But for sure ALL websites will have a mobile version in the future, and infact at some point the mobile version of any given site will become the primary site. Maybe when the mobile site is the main site .mobi will be considered as valid as .com?
Valid, but massively cheaper! .mobi’s are maybe 1% of .com prices right now? When the mobile web matures into THE BIGGEST MEDIUM EVER, then quality generic .mobi prices could easily rise to 10-50%+ .com prices.
.mobi’s fortunes will rise with the mobile web, but even if you are not a supporter of the .mobi TLD, the mobile web is a very exciting place to be.
Clubland
Yes the domain market is down, the economy is down, but few are talking .mobi down these days and the companies shown on mobisite.org have gone mobi. Mobi is also big in China so it would be interesting to hear your latest thoughts Rick.
internetual
I think if we keep seeing this sort of promotion, then .mobi could explode into the publics consciousness.
http://okok.com/nvmobi-keeps-on-going-strong/
Especially as for example, i live in the uk, and .co.uk & .org.uk are known by everyone.
.mobi isn’t competing with that, or .de in Germany. As maybe 2% i’m guessing if that of the UK population will know .de is Germany’s cctld etc.
.mobi is Global, so if in the next few years 10% of each country have heard of .mobi, then .mobi will be Monster.
Again, be great to hear Rick’s view on .mobi mid 2009
Thanks
crunchbird
Looks like mobi is losing fans and money – check out the latest
http://www.gomonews.com/trouble-in-dotmobi-paradise/
there is a recording of the dotmobi conference call at http://www.domainerdeveloper.com/2009/08/mtld-conference-call.html
practice brokerage
Rick, what did you think of the recent casino.mobi sale for $135,000? i know you own the plural
would be great to hear where you stand on .mobi these days
Domain News
Rick, is a sale in the pipeline for ‘Tickets.mobi’ ?
I appreciate the domain had to be developed as a ‘premium’ , but is there more to this latest development?
The Link that says ‘Domain News’ will take you to article
Look forward to hearing back
cheers