.mobi MOBI vs COM

[noonoo1]

Hi guys is it possible to start a debate about the mighty .com vs .mobi ?

I believe that .mobi will become far stronger than the .com in the next few years.

One of my main reasons for believing this is as follows;

1. The ratio of mobile phones to pc's.

2. The restrictions of employers allowing their staff the use of pc's. Time is money!

3. The screen size restrictions of mobile phone's.

4. The lack of time available in a day to access home pc's. Kids are always on the pc.

5. The mobile phone technology is getting better exponentially.

6. I am sure the carbon footprint of a mobile is less than a pc.

7. There is only one domain extension designed for the mobile, but many extension's for pc's. I would say watering down the value of domains with multiple extension's. This maybe why some people are so negative about .mobi's.

please feel free to add more to this debate.

 

[nrmillions]

this thread is just asking for trouble. its way too early to be debating .com vs .mobi. a developed .mobi site could easily be worth more than the same name in a non developed .com right now though.

 

[-REECE-]

Indeed. Let's be realistic here... In a few years, stronger than .net? I could see that happening... Stronger than dotcom? It will take MUCH, MUCH longer than that, should it ever happen.

People don't surf for hours on their phone -- more phones, but less average surf time.

 

[Jasonn]

The people who say mobi will be worth more are the ones who don't have very good .com's most of the time. Sure, i hope mobi will be very valuable in the future but until it even starts being used and accepted by the general public, it won't be anywhere near. No matter what, .com will always be king in my opinion.

 

[-REECE-]

The people who say mobi will be worth more are the ones who don't have very good .com's most of the time. Sure, i hope mobi will be very valuable in the future but until it even starts being used and accepted by the general public, it won't be anywhere near. No matter what, .com will always be king in my opinion.

Same here. What most new domainers don't realize is that .mobi doesn't need to become the next .com to make many people huge profits. Take realestate.mobi in example -- bought for $85k. Realestate.net was bought for $300k. So if .mobi became equivalent to .net, this happy owner would be looking at ~$150,000-$250,000 profit (depending on the enduser). Anytime you make that kind of profit in a few years time is an exceptional investment in my opinion.

 

[scandiman]

I question the value of these kinds of threads because it insinuates that com must fall for mobi to rise and I don't believe that to be the case. Plus these kinds of threads have been torn apart before but you're relatively new and would not be aware of that without searching back in the archives. But in response to your post:

I believe that .mobi will become far stronger than the .com in the next few years.

Not even close. I'm very much a mobi enthusiast but I find this statement to be preposterous. Besides the fact that it draws the wrong type of attention to the mobi subforum, there is little history to support it. Things are certainly encouraging for .mobi in the present but when you stick your neck out this far don't be surprised if your head gets cut off.

 

[noonoo1]

The idea of this thread was to debate what people think with regards to these domain extensions. I dont want this to become a THEM and US debate, i just want to know how people think the future market will change. I can see people are passionate about their domains. Change is all around us and being such a newbie i wanted to know what other peoples thoughts were on this.

Thanks

 

[whitebark]

Sorry to say but you start out on a wrong assumption. That assumption is that only .mobi serves content to mobile devices. That's just not true. It may be the one and only specialized domain, but that by no means it is the only one people can expect to get specially crafted content that is viewable on their mobile device.

I've added mobile content to a couple of my news websites - it's easy as pie to do. The website recognizes the mobile browser and directs it towards the content that the mobile device can handle. The viewer sees content that fits their mobile device on my .ca domains. It's not rocket science - just computer science.

But you do make some other valid points.
1) you are correct, and this margin will only grow. But see my main point above.
2)correct again, but see main point.
3)that's actually a detriment not a plus.
4)correct again, but see main point.
5)indeed it is, getting so good that it will not need restrictive coding much longer.
6)that's debatable, but most people don't think about their carbon footprint when looking for information about who just towed their car.
7) sorry to say but you wrong here. every domain extension can be viewed on a mobile device - properly too if the webmaster makes it so. It may be the only one with restrictive coding behind the extension, but it clearly is not the only one for mobile use.

It has an advantage right now in that webmasters for the most part adhere to that coding so people don't have to guess that the website will work when they arrive there on their mobile device. But as website creators like myself start seeing more mobile devices coming to our non-mobi websites we will formulate redirects for them. Right now across my network of websites mobile browsers account for less than 1% of total traffic. most of that comes on a small handful of websites. I'd redesign a webpage for the old netscape navigator browser before mobile ones at this point in time.

EDIT - oops forgot to add. This goes to your point five - the .mobi coding restrictions will be dropped. I'm guessing in about two years when most browsers on mobile devices are smart enough to handle existing website coding. That will make .mobi no different from any other extension. They can resist that change and that will do nothing but hurt them IMHO. mobi is a world .tld and as such will probably always outsell the majority of tlds - namely restrictive cctlds. That's a good reason to invest in .mobi, not the standards behind it.

.mobi has its place, but it will never surpass the king.

 

[pcaero]

I question the value of these kinds of threads because it insinuates that com must fall for mobi to rise and I don't believe that to be the case. Plus these kinds of threads have been torn apart before but you're relatively new and would not be aware of that without searching back in the archives. But in response to your post:

Not even close. I'm very much a mobi enthusiast but I find this statement to be preposterous. Besides the fact that it draws the wrong type of attention to the mobi subforum, there is little history to support it. Things are certainly encouraging for .mobi in the present but when you stick your neck out this far don't be surprised if your head gets cut off.

Agree...
one step at a time..

COM is king. Apples and Oranges
Dont understand why we need to compare mobi to any extension.
mobi is mobi=unproven, but gaining momentum
com is com=proven

period.

 

[noonoo1]

Good thats the kind of response i was looking for.

Good stuff.

 

[bricio]

i think that one day, in some years, .mobi will be stronger than .com where it has to... i mean .mobi will be stronger in news, geographical (related especially to cities and tourism), ringtones, banks and other areas. i believe there r names that r not good for .mobi and other names r better to be used as .mobi than .com but names can always be used as .com what is an advantage... i believe that there wont be a .mobi X .com cause w/ .mobi the fact is that "another world has been ceated".

i think that one day, in some years, .mobi will be stronger than .com where it has to... i mean .mobi will be stronger in news, geographical (related especially to cities and tourism), ringtones, banks and other areas. i believe there r names that r not good for .mobi and other names r better to be used as .mobi than .com but names can always be used as .com what is an advantage... i believe that there wont be a .mobi X .com cause w/ .mobi the fact is that "another world has been ceated", i mean .mobi is another niche.

 

[circa1850]

This matter has already been debated and beat to death time and time again on this forum.

It would be best just to redirect the OP to those threads.

You can't see the forest for the trees.

 

[scandiman]

Right now across my network of websites mobile browsers account for less than 1% of total traffic.

What is interesting about this stat is that my .mobi sites are getting 60-80% WAP mobile traffic and others are reporting a similar percentage. I see this as evidence that there is a pent up demand for content specific for mobile users.

 

[-REECE-]

What is interesting about this stat is that my .mobi sites are getting 60-80% WAP mobile traffic and others are reporting a similar percentage. I see this as evidence that there is a pent up demand for content specific for mobile users.

Definitely. And I certainly don't think 1200 hits to my parked dotmobis in the past 2 weeks are strictly from domainers and developers.

 

[Broker]

In the beginning I said, "Mobi will kill .com in a few years" Now my tune has changed dramatically. I now believe .mobi will become 100% useless as newer technology allows for viewing .com on mobile devices through browsers and automatic detection which will likely lead to www.whatever.com/mobile etc. Not to mention the newer cell phones, pocket pc's etc coming on the market with wide screens. Just my opinion, but .mobi will fail in due time.

 

[whitebark]

What is interesting about this stat is that my .mobi sites are getting 60-80% WAP mobile traffic and others are reporting a similar percentage. I see this as evidence that there is a pent up demand for content specific for mobile users.

my one and only mobi site (which I didn't include in the 1% total) sees nearly 90% WAP traffic - but that's to be expected at this point - no? And i completely agree - there is a growing demand.

Where I disagree with many is that I don't need a mobi domain/website to meet that demand. That seems to be the crux of the argument for many.

As for the debate itself - it's healthy as long as it doesn't denigrate into name calling and the such. New investors/web creators should read all sides of an argument before deciding to delve in.

 

[-REECE-]

my one and only mobi site (which I didn't include in the 1% total) sees nearly 90% WAP traffic - but that's to be expected at this point - no? And i completely agree - there is a growing demand.

Where I disagree with many is that I don't need a mobi domain/website to meet that demand. That seems to be the crux of the argument for many.

As for the debate itself - it's healthy as long as it doesn't denigrate into name calling and the such. New investors/web creators should read all sides of an argument before deciding to delve in.

Indeed. Vcool has already proved that a well developed site may prosper, even within the .mobi namespace at it's current stage of existance. Michael (mykel241) hasn't provided any figures, but judging by how many ventures he has going on, I'd say he's a success story also.

As for success without development -- people just need to have reasonable expectations. There is no purpose whatsoever to .net, yet it still has value -- significant value for high quality names. There's no reason .mobi couldn't experience a comparable level of success. Dotcom is an order of magnitude over .net, so there's plenty of potential for .mobi to be worth a large sum of money, while still remaining worth a fraction of it's Big Brother.

 

[scandiman]

my one and only mobi site (which I didn't include in the 1% total) sees nearly 90% WAP traffic - but that's to be expected at this point - no? And i completely agree - there is a growing demand.

Where I disagree with many is that I don't need a mobi domain/website to meet that demand. That seems to be the crux of the argument for many.

You are 100% accurate in saying that a .mobi domain is not needed to deliver mobile content. Thankfully we don't hear the opposite nonsense much anymore. But what it all comes down to is branding. The reason I stepped into .mobi was from my own personal bad experience of trying to browse websites on mobile devices such as my simple nokia phone, my wife's blackberry and others. The results were disastrous and this experience helped me see the market for a tld that was safe and specific for mobile users. I too have com sites with the gratuitous 1% WAP users and seeing 60-80% WAP users on my .mobi sites tells me something, I was not alone in my desire to use mobile for internet but was mostly hindered in the process. Will technology make this irrelevant in the future? Only the future will tell. But today, .mobi is relevant to mobile users as evidenced by the percentage of mobile users.

As for the debate itself - it's healthy as long as it doesn't denigrate into name calling and the such. New investors/web creators should read all sides of an argument before deciding to delve in.

I very much enjoy discussing the facts and seeing how we may interpret them differently.

 

[mjnels]

In the beginning I said, "Mobi will kill .com in a few years" Now my tune has changed dramatically. I now believe .mobi will become 100% useless as newer technology allows for viewing .com on mobile devices through browsers and automatic detection which will likely lead to www.whatever.com/mobile etc. Not to mention the newer cell phones, pocket pc's etc coming on the market with wide screens. Just my opinion, but .mobi will fail in due time.

oh nooooo... are you a bot too?

 

[Jeff]

oh nooooo... are you a bot too?

^ Off topic and entirely unnecessary, IMHO.


Back on topic ... :talk:
The "Mobile Web" is coming ... so that will buoy, in the short term, the .MOBI and perception for the .MOBI, IMHO. Advancements, though, will be made with mobile compliant .COM websites, device detection, and other emerging technologies specific to an "Mobile Web" that will propel the .COM in the long term. I agree that the statement ".MOBI will become far stronger than the .com in the next few years" is, indeed, pretty farfetched! I actually think it's to be the opposite ... but developed .MOBI's can still establish a presence now and put their best product forward in the unknown and unpredictable future of the "Mobile Web" and ongoing and future ".COM versus .MOBI" debates IMHO.
Time will tell and I wish everyone the best with their developments! :yell:

Just my two sense.
-Jeff

 

[-REECE-]

Fail is a subjective word IMO... Relative to .com, all extensions created to date have failed. That being said, would Sex.net be considered a "failure" selling for $454,000? What about Date.org selling for $150,000? NAV.no selling for ~$700,000? Cruises.co.uk selling for ~ $180,000 or Video.us selling for $75,000?

I certainly wouldn't call any name regged/bought for <$100 and flipped for >$10,000 to be anything other than a fantastic sale. IMO, none of these extensions are failures, nor will dotmobi be one. Will it be the next .com? Probably not. Will we see many more sales >$10,000 for names currently owned by NP'ers in the future? I sure think so

 

[mjnels]

oh c'mon jeff, its funny... a bot does something automatically, like a knee jerk reaction.. but i agree, entirely unnecessary and unprofessional

 

[oldtimer]

Not even close. I'm very much a mobi enthusiast but I find this statement to be preposterous.

In order to maintain a professional and business like atmosphere for .mobi forum its best to refrain from using these kind of words, as it gives the impression that you are punishing the OP for expressing his opinion. You can still indicate your disagreement by saying that you find that statement “ unacceptable “ or “ unreasonable “ or “ far fetched “ or even “ illogical “ without giving your post a negative tone. IMO

 

[Jasonn]

If you want mobi to succeed, build and advertise. Make people think when visiting sites on their phones they *have* to use a .mobi extention. Thats the key.

 

[Broker]

When I said fail, I meant more in the sense that I dont believe it will be as successful as I once thought it would. Not a complete failure, total bomb etc.