.mobi One owner revealed from Sedo

[cac14850]

Article on the auction pasted below. Insurance.com bought the mobi counterpart.

Article: News [Internet]
Tuesday 9th October 2007

dotMobi cashes in on domain name auction 11:55AM, Tuesday 9th October 2007


The registrar of the new .mobi internet domain has hailed the success of the first online auction of the new web destination.
dotMobi auctioned 100 domain names, the first time that selected addresses have been offered via auction rather than on a "first come, first served" basis. As a result, the company was able to raise a healthy $850,000.

The auction's most desired name was hosting.mobi which sold for $101,000. Both bank.mobi and download.mobi attracted top bids of $51,500, currency.mobi reaped $47,000 while Insurance.com, an independent, online insurance agency, purchased insurance.mobi for $42,005.

"We see the long-term value of the mobile internet," says Joe Singleton, director of Information Technology, Insurance.com. "The .mobi domain will be a valuable tool in continuing to build our future consumer offerings."

David Ryder, dotMobi's chief marketing officer says the success of the auction demonstrates the potential in mobile content. "With more than 1.6 billion mobile users around the world, it's obvious that brands are quickly realising that the audience for mobile content is enormous," he says. "This auction proves that dotMobi has some of the most-wanted

ADVERTISEMENT

domain names in the world, and it's exciting to start seeing how they'll be used for content."

A second auction takes place on 31 October when names including car.mobi, gps.mobi, gay.mobi, kiss.mobi, love.mobi and map.mobi will be available.

$100,000 may seem a lot to pay for a web address, but it pales in comparison with the staggering amounts paid at the height of the first dotcom boom when private equity firm eCompanies paid $7.5 million for business.com. eCompanies was far from alone in failing to anticipate the rise of search as the chief way of finding information on the net.

Nonetheless, it is still a lot of money. Tim Berners-Lee, the web's inventor, has criticised the proliferation of domain names , arguing they serve no purpose other than the enrichment of registrar companies. The fact that Insurance.com paid more than $40,000 for insurance.mobi suggests he may have a point.

Part in response to Berners-Lee's comments, ICANN, the international body that oversees the entire domain system, began public consultation earlier this year on plans to develop new processes for the creation, approval and implementation of new top-level domains such as .mobi.

 

[garrett200]

Tim Berners-Lee, the web's inventor, has criticised the proliferation of domain names , arguing they serve no purpose other than the enrichment of registrar companies. The fact that Insurance.com paid more than $40,000 for insurance.mobi suggests he may have a point.

Part in response to Berners-Lee's comments, ICANN, the international body that oversees the entire domain system, began public consultation earlier this year on plans to develop new processes for the creation, approval and implementation of new top-level domains such as .mobi.

Important point. We might be looking at one of the last approved tld's for a while.

 

[Mobi Cheap]

And your guesstimate two years from now?

Important point. We might be looking at one of the last approved tld's for a while.

Agreed.

And two questions anyone may want to try answering rather than arguing with Snoop in the other thread:

1. How much do you guys think the winning bidder would have paid if someone had marketed insurance.mobi to the rest of the insurance industry?

2. As insurance.com are in one way or another familiar with the insurance industry, what would you say they could get for this domain two years from now if they decided to test the market and talk to the key players in the industry?

 

[garrett200]

The really good news in this is that insurance.com bought insurance.mobi - a definite enduser who will no doubt be promoting their investment very soon. These are the kind of investors I like to see.

 

[dag]

The really good news in this is that insurance.com bought insurance.mobi - a definite enduser who will no doubt be promoting their investment very soon. These are the kind of investors I like to see.

Hey, MobiMaven -- I think you something to do with this! You contacted them, didn't you? :tu:

 

[-REECE-]

The really good news in this is that insurance.com bought insurance.mobi - a definite enduser who will no doubt be promoting their investment very soon. These are the kind of investors I like to see.

Amen!

If we see a whole bunch more endusers like this revealed when the sales are finalized, we can only assume that it's in part due to the great work of Mobi Maven! If that's the case, I'm going to help make this interesting come Sedo #2... Mobi Maven can email all the .com owners and I'll email all their competitors :yell:

That should be fun

 

[newdomainer.mobi]

As a point of interest;

I have glazing.mobi & I e:mailed over 75 glazing companies with it, I was asking about $5,000 (well, you've got to start somewhere but I didn't get a single response.
I put it down to total lack of public awareness at the time (this was back in december '06) so I wasn't disheartened... interesting to see some switched on end-users embracing this especially by an insurance broker that specialise in internet selling... that means they understand the market place more than someone blindly bidding for the domain on the off-chance.

I would like to put a few of my stronger domains to auction in the next 6 months but I'm holding back until I see some broader activity (& I see the situation improving on a weekly basis)..... on balance, I'm quite pleased with the way .mobi has performed.

Gary

 

[MobiMaven]

Hey, MobiMaven -- I think you something to do with this! You contacted them, didn't you? :tu:

I did, but who knows--they may have been planning on bidding on it way before they heard from me. But hey, it can't hurt to let people know, right??

Thanks,

MM

 

[Mobi Cheap]

I did, but who knows--they may have been planning on bidding on it way before they heard from me. But hey, it can't hurt to let people know, right??

Thanks,

MM

Yes, if they were telepathic they almost surely would have been!

Despite that, I hereby renew my invitation for heaps of rep for MobiMaven!

 

[garrett200]

MobiMaven,

If you had a hand in this in any way whatsoever, you deserve more than reps! You deserve a job at mtld.

 

[Mobi Cheap]

MobiMaven,

If you had a hand in this in any way whatsoever, you deserve more than reps! You deserve a job at mtld.

Great idea! Failing that, perhaps an introduction fee from Sedo?

 

[Pred]

sorry guys, didnt see this thread before one i posted.
the title wasn't clear, soz
just seen it .
hey, such great news, lets have 2 threads, lol :hehe:

 

[garrett200]

Think about this:

This is the only enduser we KNOW ABOUT! 2 more auctions left too. This party really could get started by the first of the year.

 

[MobiMaven]

Great idea! Failing that, perhaps an introduction fee from Sedo?

Based on my prior dealings with Sedo, I'm not going to hold my breath--I think I'll have to be satisfied with (hopefully) seeing an increase in the value of my existing portfolio!!

But I am planning on contacting all 100 .com owners and their competitors for the second Sedo auction as well. I've got scripts that I used in the first auction, and I've already had a few others offer to help. If you want to join us, just PM me.

Thanks,

MM