.mobi Moving forward - What will drive .mobi?

[jeremyp]

It's 2:20AM PST as I write this. My 6 week old baby has an agenda that doesn't sync with my normal 24-hour rhythm. I feel inspired despite the clock.

CRITICISM BASED ON HIGH EXPECTATIONS...
I've been reading quite a few posts critical of MTLD and their driving the .mobi extension/brand. I believe there is some justification to the criticism. The irony is that the expectation bar was set VERY HIGH by the same management that is now seeing some critical concern.

MTLD conducted arguably the best domain name launch in the history of the industry. In many ways, it was brilliant: 1) The extensive time given to TM holders; 2) The holding out 5,000 premium names to be distributed via RFP, Auction and other methods; 3) The deep relationships with major web content and phone hardware/software providers; 4) The early demonstrated branding effort; 5) The strong positioning statement for the extension itself

Combine 1) - 5) with the solid, early secondary market, and I'd say we had the perfect storm for optimistic secondary market values on premium names. In turn, the expectations of the success of mobi in terms of big-time development, marketing, awareness and consumer adoption matched the optimistic pitch of the secondary market.

So, now what? How can MTLD keep the fevered pitch amongst the speculation crowd?

WHAT CAN MTLD DO THAT WILL DRIVE .MOBI
1) Unveil the next steps in the marketing and promotional plan.
2) Explain the RFP process, set expectations in terms of distribution of names and follow through in a timely manner.
3) Convey how you plan to leverage some of the big partners that attracted many of us high valued consumers to speculate in the .mobi market.
4) Establish a pattern of communication with your most ardent supporters in the domaining community.
5) Manage expectations clearly. We are forgiving. If something slips, let us know.
6) Place content on your best domain names. News, Sports, Ringtones, Sex, Weather, Travel, Finance, Business, and about 500 other SUPER PREMIUM domain names are receiving type-in hits and sitting barren with 0 content. I'm not asking for the world. Just a simple page that reinforces the consumer's willingness to continue seeking out random .mobi pages. At the very least, even a "COMING SOON - THE REVOLUTION OF THE MOBILE WEB - .MOBI" would do for now. Something, anything to reinforce incremental consumer search.

WHAT WILL DRIVE .MOBI - NON-MTLD
1) Time. I've stated from day #1 that this is a 3-5 year build to any level of consumer awareness outside of us first movers.
2) Mobile content development. Simply stated, it's in the absolute infancy, and I honestly don't give a heck what the pundits say... It's moving very slowly. I have had a phone with web connectivity since 2003. The content sucked then, and it sucks now. There are few drivers to drive me to my mobile phone to surf the web. There WILL BE.
3) Mobile hardware development. Again, simply stated, the hardware still sucks. It's transitional hardware. We'll look back at the current phones on the market 10 years from now and say, "Well of course people weren't surfing the mobile web like they are now... the phones sucked." There WILL BE good hardware.
4) Bandwidth improvements. This will improve in time.
5) Reduced cost of information transfer. This will improve in time.

THE CONCLUSION
MTLD did a fantastic job in the launch. Expectations are very high from the domaining community. There is a currently a lull from MTLD. However, a roadmap to success exists that is within MTLD's control. All factors outside MTLD's control that will effect the long-term success of the .mobi brand will show improvement in the 3-5 year term.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE
I manage (VP Marketing) a multi hundred-million dollar retail consumer products division specializing in entertainment collector based product. I speak to my community on a weekly basis, letting them know what to expect in terms of product launch and role out. I'm also a 10-year domainer who saw some success in the .com space and believes deeply in the potential of a mobile domain extension.

The mobile web is coming.

Help us help you, MTLD.

Sincerely,
Jeremy Padawer
www.jeremy.com

 

[erwin.groen]

I hope MTLD is listening...

Thanks for the post...

 

[mjnels]

welcome to vampire hours jeremy...


yea same here, i have a normal cellphone that can get online, but going to a website is like i morphed back to 1993 or something.... i just think what itll be like in 10 years..or even 5 years and laugh... figure ill get me one of those cool future phones in 2012 or sometime around there.. theyre all either too clunky or too expensive now for how little i use it and besides that, not much of a "mobile web" exists content-wise right now..

 

[chupacabra]

This is the best time for getting work done. No distractions.

I would like to see some of the premium RFP names given away in exchange for someone with the ability and willingness to promote the heck out of it. Weather is a great example. MTLD could give it to the Weather Channel, on the condition that it is actively and prominently promoted on TV and weather.com. It is in their best interest to build the brand now, to increase the value of the rest of the premium names. Obviously MTLD knows this, but it just feels like they are holding off, waiting for others to build the brand up outside of the premium names.

Ok, it's 3am for me, time for bed...

 

[jeremyp]

This is the best time for getting work done. No distractions.

I would like to see some of the premium RFP names given away in exchange for someone with the ability and willingness to promote the heck out of it. Weather is a great example. MTLD could give it to the Weather Channel, on the condition that it is actively and prominently promoted on TV and weather.com. It is in their best interest to build the brand now, to increase the value of the rest of the premium names. Obviously MTLD knows this, but it just feels like they are holding off, waiting for others to build the brand up outside of the premium names.

Ok, it's 3am for me, time for bed...

Agreed! Weather Channel pumping the .mobi promotional machine would be a tremendous driver for awareness... as long as they agreed to use that promotional machine!

This is worth far more than the $XXX,XXX MTLD would achieve on the secondary market.

Jeremy

 

[binaryman]

Great post Jeremy. One thing though, you say Quote"So, now what? How can MTLD keep the fevered pitch amongst the speculation crowd?"Unquote
But what makes you think that Mtld is interested in us "speculators" aka domainers?

 

[MobiMaven]

WHAT CAN MTLD DO THAT WILL DRIVE .MOBI

6) Place content on your best domain names. News, Sports, Ringtones, Sex, Weather, Travel, Finance, Business, and about 500 other SUPER PREMIUM domain names are receiving type-in hits and sitting barren with 0 content. I'm not asking for the world. Just a simple page that reinforces the consumer's willingness to continue seeking out random .mobi pages. At the very least, even a "COMING SOON - THE REVOLUTION OF THE MOBILE WEB - .MOBI" would do for now. Something, anything to reinforce incremental consumer search.

WHAT WILL DRIVE .MOBI - NON-MTLD

2) Mobile content development. Simply stated, it's in the absolute infancy, and I honestly don't give a heck what the pundits say... It's moving very slowly. I have had a phone with web connectivity since 2003. The content sucked then, and it sucks now. There are few drivers to drive me to my mobile phone to surf the web. There WILL BE.

Very thought-provoking post. IMHO, having mtld develop the "SUPER PREMIUM" names with useful content (even as a temporary fix until the RFP/auction winner comes along) would be big. It looks like .mobi will be facing competition from m.whatever.com. As long as users can access useful information on m.whatever.com but get nothing from sex.mobi, sports.mobi, news.mobi, etc., .mobi will continue to fall behind.

Having said that, I have to admit that (in a much smaller way) I'm also part of the problem. Although none of my mobis even begin to approach the potential of sex.mobi and the other super premium names, all 500 of mine are just sitting there undeveloped. I have started development on the first 10, and after that is done I'll move on to the next 10 (and so on), but I can't bitch and moan about mtld not developing theirs if I don't do anything about mine. Kind of a "think globally, act locally" mentality. Kudos to all who have already developed their mobis--you have motivated me to do the same.

Regards,

Jeff/MM

 

[jeremyp]

Great post Jeremy. One thing though, you say Quote"So, now what? How can MTLD keep the fevered pitch amongst the speculation crowd?"Unquote
But what makes you think that Mtld is interested in us "speculators" aka domainers?

They'd better be...!

It's 3:20AM. That's the best answer I've got for you.

In all seriousness, I believe any communication from MTLD is to the domaining community. Who else would be listening? The awareness is simply not going to drive business right now.

Jeremy

 

[Jasdon]

Your point #6 is spot on, and is exactly what I asked Pinky Brand for several weeks ago. My question was, why not place something informative on a landing page for the best names being held back for RFP, to gain exposure for the ext. This was his reply;

Hello James,

Thanks for your email and sorry for my tardy reply. dotMobi switched
email servers while I was on vacation so your email was in a black hole
until I returned this week.

Anyway, music.mobi and video.mobi are under review for possible
allocation via auction or RFP, as are the other names on the list.
Unfortunately I have no further specific information on a time frame at
this time, but you can be sure we'll post details once they become
available. I agree these are great names for development and exposure!

Thanks for your continued interest and support.

Pinky

Pinkard Alan "Pinky" Brand
dotMobi (mTLD Top Level Domain Ltd.)

I'm sure that if more of us take the time to ask for this directly, there is a very good chance of it happening.

Jeremy, you seem to be the guy who can rally the troops....

 

[scandiman]

Having said that, I have to admit that (in a much smaller way) I'm also part of the problem. Although none of my mobis even begin to approach the potential of sex.mobi and the other super premium names, all 500 of mine are just sitting there undeveloped. I have started development on the first 10, and after that is done I'll move on to the next 10 (and so on), but I can't bitch and moan about mtld not developing theirs if I don't do anything about mine. Kind of a "think globally, act locally" mentality. Kudos to all who have already developed their mobis--you have motivated me to do the same.

Well said MobiMaven! We all play a roll in furthering content. It's not just up to mtld.

 

[mobidick]

Jeremy - super summarization - very professional and balanced.

I too need to step up my development progress a notch - it's like saving for retirement - big advantage to get in there early.

As for mTLD, they seem to be responding quite well to most emails sent their way; so, since that line of communication seems to be working, lets send them a kind note including links to a few posts, like this one.

One way to foster a deeper relationship with mTLD and our NP community might be to highlight our commitment in terms of both sheer registration numbers as well as our own development efforts, such as dir.mobi, etc.

Another idea might be for us to collectively draft a few .mobi placeholder sites for mTLD to use for their premium and reserved sites to seed their own development efforts as well as build a stronger partnership with mTLD.

How about this? We build the sites, and in turn get to provide links to our own sites we developed. They get free content and development; we get exposure for our names, and surfers get useable content, learn about .mobi premium names, RFPs etc. as well as finding other great sites which we built that illustrate what .mobi is and can be.

 

[jeremyp]

Jeremy - super summarization - very professional and balanced.

so, since that line of communication seems to be working, lets send them a kind note including links to a few posts, like this one.

Thank you, Mobidick.

 

[nombre]

jeremy
very thoughtful post

we all probably focussed on different parts of it, for me, the issues right now are hardware development, bandwidth and costs

up here in british columbia there isn't a single company with all 3 of those elements in place

90% of the phones offerred don't even access the full internet

bandwidth isn't there, costs are outrageous ...there really is no point in developing any of my local sites (which are the one's that interest me most) because nobody can get to them anyway

... very frustrating .. i am afraid we are in, as you have said many times, for a long wait

i also believe that the mobile internet will absolutely happen and mobi is positioned best to profit because of it's emphasis on simplicity, speed and accessibility

 

[scandiman]

...there really is no point in developing any of my local sites (which are the one's that interest me most) because nobody can get to them anyway

Please forgive the partial thread hijack but what sites do you have? If they are tourist destinations then it may well be worth building for us foreigners to access and plus you will start to mature in the SE's.

 

[nombre]

Please forgive the partial thread hijack but what sites do you have? If they are tourist destinations then it may well be worth building for us foreigners to access and plus you will start to mature in the SE's.

i have a mixture of names that are locally oriented in real estate, food, pizza, city names, wine and tourist destinations plus quite a few names ending in "map" or "maps"

i have one called westcoasttrail.mobi, hikers will know it as one of the great hiking destinations in north america but there is just no way at this point it will get enough hits to make it worthwhile since it is out in the boonies

 

[-REECE-]

It's 2:20AM PST as I write this. My 6 week old baby has an agenda that doesn't sync with my normal 24-hour rhythm. I feel inspired despite the clock.

CRITICISM BASED ON HIGH EXPECTATIONS...
I've been reading quite a few posts critical of MTLD and their driving the .mobi extension/brand. I believe there is some justification to the criticism. The irony is that the expectation bar was set VERY HIGH by the same management that is now seeing some critical concern.

MTLD conducted arguably the best domain name launch in the history of the industry. In many ways, it was brilliant: 1) The extensive time given to TM holders; 2) The holding out 5,000 premium names to be distributed via RFP, Auction and other methods; 3) The deep relationships with major web content and phone hardware/software providers; 4) The early demonstrated branding effort; 5) The strong positioning statement for the extension itself

Combine 1) - 5) with the solid, early secondary market, and I'd say we had the perfect storm for optimistic secondary market values on premium names. In turn, the expectations of the success of mobi in terms of big-time development, marketing, awareness and consumer adoption matched the optimistic pitch of the secondary market.

So, now what? How can MTLD keep the fevered pitch amongst the speculation crowd?

WHAT CAN MTLD DO THAT WILL DRIVE .MOBI
1) Unveil the next steps in the marketing and promotional plan.
2) Explain the RFP process, set expectations in terms of distribution of names and follow through in a timely manner.3) Convey how you plan to leverage some of the big partners that attracted many of us high valued consumers to speculate in the .mobi market.4) Establish a pattern of communication with your most ardent supporters in the domaining community.
5) Manage expectations clearly. We are forgiving. If something slips, let us know.6) Place content on your best domain names. News, Sports, Ringtones, Sex, Weather, Travel, Finance, Business, and about 500 other SUPER PREMIUM domain names are receiving type-in hits and sitting barren with 0 content. I'm not asking for the world. Just a simple page that reinforces the consumer's willingness to continue seeking out random .mobi pages. At the very least, even a "COMING SOON - THE REVOLUTION OF THE MOBILE WEB - .MOBI" would do for now. Something, anything to reinforce incremental consumer search.

WHAT WILL DRIVE .MOBI - NON-MTLD
1) Time. I've stated from day #1 that this is a 3-5 year build to any level of consumer awareness outside of us first movers.
2) Mobile content development. Simply stated, it's in the absolute infancy, and I honestly don't give a heck what the pundits say... It's moving very slowly. I have had a phone with web connectivity since 2003. The content sucked then, and it sucks now. There are few drivers to drive me to my mobile phone to surf the web. There WILL BE.
3) Mobile hardware development. Again, simply stated, the hardware still sucks. It's transitional hardware. We'll look back at the current phones on the market 10 years from now and say, "Well of course people weren't surfing the mobile web like they are now... the phones sucked." There WILL BE good hardware.
4) Bandwidth improvements. This will improve in time.
5) Reduced cost of information transfer. This will improve in time.

THE CONCLUSION
MTLD did a fantastic job in the launch. Expectations are very high from the domaining community. There is a currently a lull from MTLD. However, a roadmap to success exists that is within MTLD's control. All factors outside MTLD's control that will effect the long-term success of the .mobi brand will show improvement in the 3-5 year term.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE
I manage (VP Marketing) a multi hundred-million dollar retail consumer products division specializing in entertainment collector based product. I speak to my community on a weekly basis, letting them know what to expect in terms of product launch and role out. I'm also a 10-year domainer who saw some success in the .com space and believes deeply in the potential of a mobile domain extension.

The mobile web is coming.

Help us help you, MTLD.

Sincerely,
Jeremy Padawer
www.jeremy.com

Very well said Jeremy. I couldn't agree more with several of your points -- the idea of putting valuable content on the best premiums is of necessity IMO. As well, as you said, the primary reason some of us (i.e. me) are hyper-critical, is because the bar has been set so high. We all know .info, .biz, .net,... will never amount to much of anything (relatively speaking), but we've been promised greatness with this extension, and we really want to see that happen. If you want to achieve what no extension has achieved since .com, you certainly have to think outside the box... You have to keep us updated far more frequently, and you have to treat your REAL INVESTORS -- US, like the real investors we are. As I've said earlier, us domainers have collectively invested as much as all their "corporate backers" -- that's not even up for debate.

 

[BocaVision]

Intelligent post, Jeremy.

Imagine if Jeremy ever decides to join the mTLD (while retaining his current career, of course)

Michael

 

[-REECE-]

Intelligent post, Jeremy.

Imagine if Jeremy ever decides to join the mTLD (while retaining his current career, of course)

Michael

IMO, they should seriously consider recruiting a successful domainer or businessman, such as Jeremy. The fact remains that he alone has more business know-how than their whole crew...

 

[jeremyp]

IMO, they should seriously consider recruiting a successful domainer or businessman, such as Jeremy. The fact remains that he alone has more business know-how than their whole crew...

Wow.

Wow.

I'm beyond flattered.

Jeremy Padawer
Jeremy.com

 

[colombani]

agree with you jeremy.
like this post.
I hope you will post threads like this again.