The .mobi registy and Sedo.com announced today a special online auction for 200 registry owned, premium .mobi domain names including actors.mobi, bands.mobi, blackjack.mobi, boys.mobi, cellphones.mobi, doctors.mobi, games.mobi, homeloans.mobi, house.mobi, model.mobi, quotes.mobi, racing.mobi, stamps.mobi, vip.mobi and xxx.mobi. The auction will be held on November 5, 2008. It should be interesting to see how this auction does. Registry owned .mobi have been the highest selling, including flowers.mobi and poker.mobi. However the .mobi aftermarket appears to have weakened and now these domains owned by the registry have additional requirements on them, since they are being sold by the registry. .Mobi now has requirements for the buyer of any domain at this auction including: A .Mobi compliant parking page to launch within 10 days of the initial domain transfer date. Full Web site with content relevant to the domain name within nine months of the initial domain transfer date. Web site to be compliant and to have a mobiReady.com score of at least 4 out of 5. Notification to .Mobi in the event of a sale, and contractual bind for any new party to the terms of the End-User Agreement. Full information, including the list of auction names, is located on the dotMobi Web site at http://premiumauction.mobi. dotMobi has recently communicated to winners of the relevant auctions the need to be in compliance and the dates that need to be met. Failure to comply with the terms and conditions may result in forfeiture of the Premium Name and bid. To help the winners adhere to these requirements, dotMobi has launched a special microsite at http://mobicompliance.com with a variety of free resources that will ensure the domain name winners can easily deploy relevant mobile content.
What do you think the impact will be of having the mobi compliance requirements? Looks like they are trying to sift out the domainers and try to get end-users, but I don’t think this will really work out. In bidding I would expect end-users, if they’re there, to out-bid domainers pretty much every time, so there’s really no need for these restrictions in order to increase the percentage of functional sites by end-users. On the other hand, potential end-users who have long-term development plans or just slow-starters may be turned off by the relatively short time and performance requirments. Also, by restricting the pool of buyers the bidding won’t be as exciting. Imo, a bad move.
Umm, .mobi,…thanks, but no thanks.
I wouldn’t spend the money because:
– .mobe has lost impact, iphone serves the .com ext.
and is the trend for phones.
– requirements exceed the benefit. We already have a large amount of parked domains. Why, because we domainers see value, others will come along and recognize this and buy. That’s the point.
Unless anyone came provide a good reason to dish out the dough, please say so. Otherwise, no market value if you have to remind people your site ends with dot who? .MOBI!
David
The requirements certain won’t help with domainers.
However there are several people that can get you a .mobi site in short order
>mobi is still to tell if it will make it. Who even surfs the internet with your phone. You cant do it with an iphone because its slow and the service is not up to par. Until you get a fast download time on a cellphone .mobi will remain very much alive and a possible great investment if your willing to take that dive.
Cruises.mobi for $900 tonight? (per DNN) Not a good sign for sedo’s “premium” auction…..they held on too long…….
Go go .mobi – in the next 2 years the .mobi will be the next Hot Property