.Mobi Madness = .Mobi Sickness
Wow…. I just spent the last half hour of my life reading Frank’s, Jay’s, Rick’s and Sahar’s blogs along with posts on a couple of forums about .mobi domain names and my head is spinning. I don’t understand why <some> people who have invested in .mobi feel the need to defend it like they are defending their children or family. Well, I guess I know why they feel the need, but it’s painful to watch.
It’s a freaking extension. If marketers promote it, investors will probably make money. If not, investors better hope they aren’t holding the bag like many of the speculators who bought names in other little used extensions. I don’t want to hear any more about bofa, disney, skype….etc. None of that means squat for 99.5% of the .mobi names that were registered based on speculation.
In my opinion, at best, some mobile-savvy marketers will buy .mobi names for THEIR brand, and some lucky .mobi speculators will make money (not just flipping to other speculators as it seems most of the successful investors are doing). At worst, .mobi is just another choice of extension that is owned by speculators and barely used by anyone.
Bottom line is that you can’t even have a rational conversation with most .mobi investors any more. It’s madness, and its making me sick!
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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 sold seven figures worth of domain names in the last five years. 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 | Google + | Facebook | Email
Ed - Michigan
Elliot, Well Said. Anyone remember:
Global Crossings…
Enron…
Some made it big, others lost.
This is the greatest land of OPPORTUNITY !!
Domain names…
Medicine…
Real Estate…
Books…
Sales…
Internet…
Teachers…
Pastors…
Communications…
Pizza…
Marketing…
Sports…
Clothing…
Now, what is it you WANT to do ????
Thanks Elliot,
Ed – Michigan
owen frager
Thanks- now i know what to get you for a holiday gift:
http://www.tums.com/
Donna Mahony
Nothing confusing here at all….follow the money!
***UPDATED BY ELLIOT (via Blackberry – no .mobi necessary!)***
I agree that money can be made and is being made, but this doesn’t mean its a good investment for everyone. If the extension doesn’t work out, a lot of people who followed the money will have a lot of money to lose.
Rockwell
I had personally never heard of .mobi before I got into the domain business. My guess is that 99.9% of internet users haven’t either.
That said, the .mobi guys don’t have a monopoly on overzealous hyperventilation when it comes to defending their investment niche. Witness Schilling the other day saying that Citigroup’s acquisition of mortgage.com could “one day save it.” This is a $165 billion company we are talking about.
***UPDATED BY ELLIOT (via Blackberry – no .mobi necessary!)***
I don’t know whether Mortgage.com will save Citi, but I think it can be a huge profit center for them. I don’t disagree with Frank.
David Carter
It’s a non-issue for me. If ou like the extension and think you’ll profit from it, go get some names. If you don’t, don’t.
Personally, I didn’t. I’m with Sahar on this one and am quite happy to get egg on my face over it.
I didn’t buy any Microsoft or Google stock when it was launched either.
DomainerPro
You see the same thing on financial discussion forums, where people who are long or short a particular stock will furiously argue why the stock is the next superstar/has no future.
I hand reg’d about 30 mobis and I’ve been selling them off at auction for $100 to $500 apiece. I may one day regret this, or I may be glad that I got rid of them while the mania lasted. Who knows.
Rockwell
“I don’t know whether Mortgage.com will save Citi, but I think it can be a huge profit center for them. I don’t disagree with Frank.”
For a company of Citigroup’s size, whether they own the mortgage.com domain or simply purchase the mortgage leads that are generated from mortgage.com is of completely negligible importance.
Schilling has clearly done exceedingly well for himself and seems like a great guy, but that Citigroup post crept right up to the line of self-parody and proceeded to blow right through it. Let’s be generous and say that mortgage.com is worth $100 million, or nearly 10x the value of the most expensive domain ever sold. At that value, it would still represent less than one tenth of a percentage point of Citigroup’s market cap.
Dan
Anyone actual ‘click’ on Owen’s post?
tums.com
The quality of ‘video’ is just starting to come of age.
No matter what ‘extension’ you happen to be invested in…
The quality in video is going to be ‘mind blowing’ within a year.
And I am not talking ‘youtube’, ‘myspace’ or ‘facebook’
I am just talking to regular ‘domain asset holders’…which is ‘you’.
Best,
Dan
BTW: mortgage.com will never make it to the ‘liability’ column…. like the $10 Billion in bad mortgages Citi group just had to write down.
It will always be an ‘asset’ and it will never be a ‘liability’.
Dan
Hi,
I would like to see an argument…at least a discussion on the merits of letters, word(s) for a .mobi address…VS. Numbers.
Is it better to have the .mobi extension:
cab.mobi
or
222.mobi
How about tackling this…
Instead of… .mobi is great or .mobi sucks.
I think ‘Numbers’ are a more ‘natural’ thing to use…its a ‘phone’….
Just some ‘food for thought’
Peace!
Dan
James
“I don’t understand why people who have invested in .mobi feel the need to defend it like they are defending their children or family.”
Both sides are just protecting their investments….why do people with nothing to gain, but a lot to lose, if mobi succeeds, keep putting it down in their blogs?
***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
There are many things mentioned in my blog where I have nothing personal to gain or lose. I think its better for unbiased writing if that’s the case.