If the first wave of online business was all about getting a dot-com, the next may be about adding a dot-mobi. The new web address became available for the first time in May and is administered by Mobile Top Level Domain (mTLD; mtld.mobi), a private company based in Dublin. Sign up for a dot-mobi address and you’ll be required to stick to a list of best practices, such as using the xhtml language. Complex design elements such as frames are banished. “When a site is built that way,” says mTLD marketing director Vance Hedderel, “it’s guaranteed to work well on every cellphone in the world.”
It is quite clear by now .Mobi is not a tech play. From tech perspective there’s no need for it as mobile phones such as iPhone, Blackberry have complete browser support and pages do not need to be adjusted for small screens.
And..
Is dot-mobi the answer? Plenty of businesses seem to think so. In its first five months of operation, the mTLD sold 700,000 domain names. In October it started auctioning off premium domain names, such as poker.mobi, which netted $150,000, and ringtones.mobi, which went for $145,000. (A typical dot-mobi address sells for about $10 a year.) A supply chain of roughly 300 domain registrars has sprung up to resell dot-mobi domains - and 135 of the registrars are based in the U.S.
It’s not about how many domains are sold but how many real world businesses actually bought and use the extension? My guess, and I would love to see numbers if anyone has any, is 95%+ of domains are bought by speculators, at least 4%+ were bought for brand protection by existing brands and may be used for redirections, and less then 1% are in actual use as supporting or stand-alone sites.
If you plan to invest in .Mobi, hedge your bets carefully.
Sahar
As a belated birthday prezzy, I have secured the name saharsarid.mobi to stop it falling into unscrupelous hands - when you’re ready to let some mobi into your life, just let me know and it’s yours!
Best - Jas
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Thanks, for me to warm up to the idea though, may take a… lifetime
Cheers
Sahar