Daily Poll: Is “.App the new .Mobi?”

I can’t even tell you the number of times I have heard people say something to the effect of ‘.App is the new .Mobi.’ The line of thinking, I assume, is that some people billed .mobi as the next big thing and a game changer, citing Google’s support of the .mobi registry. I think we all know what happened with .mobi domain names, which I hardly see anymore and certainly can’t recall seeing them used regularly.

Google operates the .App registry, and some people see this as a positive sign for the health and life of .App domain names. I have mixed feelings about this primarily because Google has always said the extension doesn’t really matter all that much and it would be strange to see them giving better rankings to websites that use a .App domain name. There is a push for SSL on websites, and all .App domain names are given SSLs, but if two competing apps have SSLs and one is on ExampleApp.com and the other uses Example.App, I don’t know if Google will give better treatment to the .App and potentially influence the value of having a .App domain name.

The aftermarket value of .App domain names is also another story, and that really remains to be seen as the market develops. I am sure there will be offers in the short-term and maybe some good deals as people try to get the .App domain names they didn’t get when priority and pre registrations opened. The long term success of .App is a different story and it remains to be seen. Judging by some of the comments in the .App domain name post, I think there are quite a few domain investors who believe in .App domain names, but the same could have been said about .Mobi as well.

Do you think .App is the new .Mobi as quite a few people have commented, or is it different this time? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section after casting your vote below:


Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

15 COMMENTS

  1. Think we need some real aftermarket auction results to know how it will play in secondary market.

    Maybe the auction of flowers.app will show the direction of the extension , just like the “auction” of flowers.mobi showed the true value of that extension

  2. I couldn’t even bring myself to get .mobi. Sites already became mobile responsive through .com. Literally served no purpose and just as good as .rocks LOL.

    .app a generic tld that is a keyword in every piece of mobile app marketing on social media advertisement there is. “Download the calm app, the tinder app, the headspace app, etc”

    .app is backed by a big giant in the tech space, they will pour a great deal of marketing as they did in buying the domain. (People Who bring up .soy .who, don’t even look at the registered tlds of those on the registery to find out less than a 1000 of em. .app already over 150k, the only tld google actually pushed public)

    Https:// ssl secured only. End users will likely have a lot better of an expierence on average when visiting website search then they do on any other tld making them more comfortable to remember and visit with ease

    PWA, mobile apps and web apps all serve under this tld and I see it being around for a long long time. Check my post in less than 8 months this .app will be top 5 tld.

  3. @Richard Howard
    “”I couldn’t even bring myself to get .mobi. Sites already became mobile responsive through .com.””
    Uhh..no they weren’t when .mobi first came out, which is why .mobi came out.

    “”.app is backed by a big giant in the tech space, they will pour a great deal of marketing””
    Yes, the same ‘big giant’ that was behind .mobi. And they didn’t pour anything into marketing it then. Doubt they will again.

  4. Something like “Dating.app”, “Movie.app” or “Game.app” “Bitcoin.app” and “College.app” may be useful. Now that I think of it…College.app and Housing.app could definitely be useful for college & housing applications (fill out form).

  5. It is a the same old stuff, an unnecessary extra extension. No business needs a set specific app site and Google will penalise duplicate content even though the registry employees seem to think it is a good idea to have multiple duplicated sites.

    The other similarilarites are the the attempt to force specific requirements like .mobi did and the fact that both are backed by Google who have a history of doing doing nothing after the official rollout of a new tld.

    For anyone who believes in .app you should definitely watch the Google I/O video, it is a huge eyeopener as to how clueless the people running this extension are.

  6. mobi, never made since as a gTLD ever, it was like why? .biz ok .info ok .travel ok but .mobi?? .cell would be logical for me, cell is easier to type than mobi too.

    For ME: .app looks like .io

    Google has a vested interest in .app and it success.

    .io $50 a year and .app is $17 a year.

    This is NOT .mobi which was a pure money play, started by the guy who did not even pay with his own money for flowers.mobi

    Google with swear with Trump as their witness, that google.com search will not favor .app over others TLD’s …. If you believe in the tooth fairy, that would make sense.

    I do not think .app will be “buy at $20 to $200” and “sell for 8K” like .com’s are today.

    It is a long term hold 4 to 7 years. Then MAYBE something will happen.

    Probably as I write this somewhere someone just sold one for $8k…probably Elliot!

    • I didn’t buy any, but I think now would probably be the best time to sell while it is still perceived as being hot.

      I think people looking at .app as an alternative to .com would be reticent to spend anything close to .com prices. IMO, domain investors could stymie adoption and usage.

  7. “I didn’t buy any, but I think now would probably be the best time to sell while it is still perceived as being hot.”

    Absolutely.

    The aftermarket demand for premium key words in extensions with a lot of hype is pretty high for a few weeks or even months, for some extensions.

    .Com is the extension for the long term. No hype needed for the gold standard.

  8. Consumers in North America have an average of 27 apps installed on their handsets, the last time I checked. They don’t really want any more. For app vendors, it’s a big challenge becoming one of those 27. In organic search, you might be able to survive at the bottom of page 3 of Google search results without burning too much of your furniture right away, but an app vendor needs to do better. Much better.

    One of the first things you learn as an engineer is how to write a process flow diagram or PFD. If you do a PFD for .MOBI, the endpoint is that the TLD shows that a site is ostensibly accessible on a small screen. .MOBI is a display domain, pure and simple. There could be a download or two available on a .MOBI site, or maybe not. Outside of it being accessible on a small screen, you don’t know what you’re going to get on a .MOBI site.

    For .APP registrants, the end point is more actionable. The end point is to get someone to download an app, not to keep coming back to the URL as if it were a display domain. Publicizing .APP domains tells viewers exactly what to expect: an app. This is a much more compelling proposition than what could be offered on .MOBI.

    Once the dust settles and we see .APP domains in the wild, a majority of new app vendors will most likely understand that publicizing their app with an .APP TLD will have lower CPAs than with any other extension, .COM included.

    Is there much of a market for a Birthday.app or even a College.app? Not too much, IMHO. To be one of the 27 apps installed on the average North American’s phone, an app needs to be more essential and more useful, which is why I only registered one .APP SLD. It wasn’t even in English, nor was it registered with the intent to sell it. Instead, it is something that could easily and affordably be developed as a project.

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