As GF has said prices have already fallen a huge amount. Little chance of discussion being "honest and clean", when the poll is so obviously biased towards a set point of view in terms of response choice.
What is your reasoning behind this Snoop and GF? I got about 20 min left so if I dont respond I will be back tommorrow. But why do you think they dropped so much?
In my opinion is was a bubble situation started by the flowers.mobi auction. Since that time the outlook has deteriorated for this extension, in term of Internet companies generally using subdomains for mobile sites. People made a gamble that .mobi might become the default way to access mobile sites (I think this is likely because people felt the backers would lead it) however that was not to be. The other major factor is we are in recession.
Very honest and great answer Me as a .mobi owner/developer ect.. I am trying the best to build my sites up. The monetary possibilities can be enourmous. I joined NP back at landrush. The reason behind this, was that I had a dream (2 major sites will be going live soon). And I have tried in my best interest to proceed this. I am coming closer every day. And with all this latest news I become happier.
(15 min to bed time)
But I wish we can all just talk like proffesionals like this and stop the bashing.
One more thing, I am sorry for the double post, but lets all work together as a team! Negativity leads to nothing. And all of us being developers and domainer should all work together. Wheather it is .com, .mobi or what ever.....There is a more brutal world out there. Just look at the news now.
We should all focus on our own lives/families. And all of us are in this together.....
Lets all work together and release our own thoughts....and talk proffesionaly from here on now! One day the naysayer or mobi lover may help you out.
My thoughts are that .mobi has suffered due to a lot of "question marks" -
1. Will new technology make .mobi obsolete? (iPhone, etc.)
2. Will mTLD market the extension enough to create the appropriate demand?
3. Since .mobi isn't "mainstream" yet, is it worth it to join in?
4. Saying "mobi" - is it with an "i" or with a "y"? (introducing it to someone who doesn't know about it yet)
5. There's not adequate regulation to ensure that .mobi sites are really compliant - when will that happen?
6. Dot com has always been known around the world - no need to translate that into another language.
Dot com is the same in English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Swahili, you name it.
Mobi - that's an English term. How does that make it marketable across different languages?
7. If .mobi is supposed to be so great, so revolutionary, and so useful, then why haven't there been big sales? Dollars go where the demand is. Hardly any dollars are going into purchasing big-name .mobi's when compared to Dot Com.
8. Money is tight right now, and with domaining becoming more and more popular you have many domainers having to spend their cash on renewal fees. Less disposable money is available to spend on so-called "speculative" extensions such as .mobi.
Those are just a few reasons off the top of my head. I hope everyone understands and follows... I didn't want to just say, "Aww man, F**K mobi! Mobi sucks!" Hopefully you all are able to see what my (and others') thoughts are in a reasoned manner, and won't be offended by raising questions.
Now we are getting somewhere without arguring.... Keep it coming all, I am sorry but I have to go to bed and wake up early tommorrow But I will check this out tommorrow. It was my Birthday today (yesterday ) but anyway lets keep this an non argumental thread but pure facts and enlightnen eachother on both sides.
Right now prices are down for all domains not just .mobi especially in the U.S. where the economy sucks right now and people dont want to spend their money on domains.
I think you hit this one right on the head, however I feel its not that people don't want to spend their money on domains, its just that everyone wants more liquidity. The market itself is a bit unstable at this point.
SPECIAL NOTE
Rep+ to everyone because everyone has raised valid points and its great we can all talk about it in a civilized manner.
I'll take a stab at dishing out my answers to your thoughts
I don't see this one at all. My .mobi site traffic has went up exponentially when my sites get listed in iPhone app directories. My son recently pointed out his new-found love of mobi sites vs "standard" sites on his PSP...simply because of the shear speed of access.
We're still at the crossroads of putting the cart before the horse. The more live sites up, the better. mTLD's worst scenario would be to do a heavy promotional push and people going to mass parked / unresolved mobi sites. Time. It all takes time. Not a typical get rich quick domain many hoped it would be.
Only if you're willing to develop
Nothing a good ad campaign can't concur. People catch on pretty quickly when exposed to advertising.
The biggest unknown at this point and my biggest concern as well. We're all eagerly awaiting some news from the guys and gals at mTLD for an answer. I know this is a difficult issue, but also believe it will be addressed soon.
See answer to #4. You can market any name for anything. What does "go daddy" have to do with domains? What's a "google"? I bet you see a duck when I say "Aflac"
dotCom names are like Blue Chip stock. It's taken years of sluggsh trading to get them there, but it's where they are now. dotMobi names are much more speculative. It's not "revolutionary". Just a domain that carries a trustmark. That, in itself will prove worth to those who wish to have a guarantied mobile presence with no questioning (m.site.com?, site.com.mobile?, ect.)
This is true. Do you renew your names or fill up your gas tank? Times are changing. This will open up a lot of nice names that will drop for the unfortunate ones who missed the early mobi boat and wish to jump aboard.
3. Since .mobi isn't "mainstream" yet, is it worth it to join in?
Does this mean that .mobi is not meant for domainers? Not all domainers are developers.
Yes - in the United States you can do that. Not in other countries. My family in Latin America has no idea what the heck GoDaddy is, nor Aflac. They know .com all day long, though. All the companies in their country use either .com or .hn. That's going to be a heck of a marketing campaign if they want international awareness.
In Spanish, they'll be asking, "Que es un mobi??" It doesn't make sense in other languages - only English.
You're correct. It's been pointed out multiple times before and needs mentioned again. Domainers, in general, want to park their names and count the money. This relies on type in traffic. Any new extension (not just mobi) will only receive a minuscule amount of type in traffic. The news of .mobi is very slowly being spread. This is by design, as stated above in my previous answer. If you're thinking your parked dotMobi will earn anything more than pocket change, you're in for disappointment.
If, on the other hand, you make a very simple template based mobile site at mobisitegalore, you'll get traffic (and resulting revenue). Keep in mind a mobile site will not have row after row of ads on it. You'll be restricted to just a few per page.
Case in point: My most basic site gets more unique visitors (186) than my other 100 or so parked domains combined (178 Views to date). I'll be able to sell leads from this site for a nice little profit. Not a typical domainer strategy, but, again, dotMobi is not just another dotCom spin-off.
DotMobi is not a typical domainers extension. You have to put forth an effort and think outside of the domainers box to cash in on it. Affiliate programs, banner ad sponsorships, etc. will start you off in the right direction. Stick with dotCom if you want to park
You say that .com makes sense world wide. How did this happen? Marketing, my friend. With enough dollars behind it, SnarffelRoot could be marketed internationally. It doesn't have to "make sense" to be accepted. Just driven into peoples minds. Ask Google
We need to keep in mind that IF tommorrow we hear that hundreds if not
thousands of new TLDs get permitted ... mobey will get DROWNED in the onslaught of confusion.
Last edited by cosmicray : 06-25-2008 at 03:01 PM.
i agree with you on this, if and only if, ICANN allows these hundreds or thousands extensions in no more than five years because it would be a confusion of dots whatever but if it takes more than this with dot mobi being used and with most people aware of it there is no need to worry for those who invested in it
it is nice to read a thread where people have their doubts about the success of sdot mobi politely and asking when they are not aware of what is going on behind the scenes instead of saying anything thew want just because they think it will not succeed
.mobi prices have fallen to a much greater degree than the rest of the market. The only thing to compare to the degree of price falls would be the llll.com's which were in a similar bubble situation in my view.
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