When Rick Schwartz paid $200,000 for Flowers.mobi, there were three general reactions from the public; he was crazy for spending that kind of money, he rolled the dice on the .mobi extension, or the bid was rigged. After yesterday’s live TRAFFIC auction where .Mobi names fetched huge sums, I think it has become clear that Schwartz certainly made a calculated gamble, and the price of Flowers.mobi doesn’t seem as crazy. According to Moniker, below are the .mobi sales in the auction along with their prices:
poker.mobi $150,000
ringtones.mobi $145,000
news.mobi $110,000
shopping.mobi $55,000
email.mobi $50,000
scores.mobi $33,000
buy.mobi $32,500
podcast.mobi $25,000
cab.mobi $17,500
cash.mobi $12,500
pda.mobi $8,000
zipcodes.mobi $8,000
bill.mobi $3,000
I only own two or three .mobi names, and I can’t even remember what they are without logging into my Godaddy account. I believe .mobi names are something to keep an eye on, moreso than .info and .net, but I am still sitting on the sidelines for the most part. I’ve seen evidence that traffic continues to build for owners of .mobi names, and I’ve even tried to use the .mobi extension from my Blackberry on occasion (I wish Jet Blue owned JetBlue.mobi!)
With some major corporations beginning to use .mobi, including Bank of America (who is using and advertising it), consumers may slowly begin to directly navigate to the .mobi extension when using their handheld devices. As this happens, look for the value of .mobi names to increase.
Like the rising stock price of a hot IPO I am unfamiliar with, I will continue to watch the .mobi market and possibly invest when I think the time is right. I still believe .mobi names are highly speculative, but the more companies that adopt the .mobi as their online connection, the more valuable these names will become, and the smarter Rick Schwartz will look to us all.
Hi!
Nice summary of a memorable Dot Mobi event.. gaining acceptance and more exposure fast, the aftermarket is only rising from here.. hungry domainers on the forums/whois are a great secret to score today, just inquire.. lookout for two more coming auctions soon (with development clauses to ensure early the emerging, world DotMobi brand = works on all phones)
Kind Regards,
Yelo
***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
I still believe there is alot of speculation when it comes to .mobi names. Wait until we see who bought these names before any assumptions are made. My bet is that they were bought by domain investors speculating on the potential of the .mobi extension rather than companies looking to develop them. Based on today’s revenue and traffic, the prices are still very, very high. Perhaps the revenue multiple will be reasonable based on growth, but we won’t have any idea for some time.
Elliot,
Don’t forget Jeremy Padawer. 🙂 I’ve taken a few hits over .mobi!
J
***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
Yeah, you have taken your fair share, too!
I own about 30 premium dot mobis but I had sort of given up hoping that the extension might have any real future. I was stunned by the success of the mobi sales at TRAFFIC. I agree that we can’t read too much into that and it’s still too soon to tell whether the extension has a future or not.