.mobi Rick Schwartz's thoughts on .mobi

[dag]

I thought the following from the Domain Name Journal's T.R.A.F.F.I.C. report was interesting:

Schwartz has always championed .com and has had strong reservations about other extensions so he would seem to be an unlikely buyer for this domain. He had this to say about it. “First of all before we are "Domainers" we are "Investors." At least that is how I would describe myself. I decided that buying a few premium .mobi's would possibly be a good investment. Time will tell. I sure am not going to pitch anyone on the extension. I know what you know. In time we will all find out if flowers.mobi was a steal or a bad investment. The downside is it goes down in value or becomes worthless. The upside is that a domain like this can be life changing. I don't see that many opportunities that cross my path that fit into the "life changing" category and I don't gamble much and don't buy lottery tickets. I am willing to take the risk and give it the time needed. Also take in to account that 4 people in the room bid over 6 figures for this domain. I knew all the bidders. They were all qualified. All I can say is stay tuned and we'll all learn together."

 

[matt_bodis]

In my honest opinion, I think that was a bad investment. I think he could have invested 200k in traffic domains instead and made a bigger return. TLDs such as .us/.info took 2-3 years to gain some value. It would take .mobi IMO 3-5 years to have some presence. On top of this, I still don't see flowers.mobi to have any substantial value.

And let's say you buy 200k worth of traffic domains based on 12 months revenue which is the norm, in 5 years you would have made back 1 million dollars, and on top of that, still had 200k worth of domains, so total 1.2 million. I don't see flowers.mobi going for that much or anything close to that.

Not trying to be negative, but usually I only post when I disagree with something.

 

[FathomJH]

flowers.mobi - order flowers from a mobile device, flowers is a gigantic market. It's obvious to anyone w/ a brain that the mobile market is increasing. It's the next gen. internet. Are mobi's going to be there? We'll see.

 

[gamehouse]

I love the way he puts it "The upside is that a domain like this can be life changing"

Thats very interesting to hear. Life changing, give me a break here. I send flowers to my GF on a regular basis. If I have to type in my address in my mobile to send the flowers (unless the program can take my address, my GF's address and then my credit card details automatically in some magical way) I would rather make a call right away say to 1-800-flowers and get it done. Well, I guess I am short sighted. We will see, how many folks will buy flowers on the go and most importantly how many times. Since only the number of times you would choose is what that is going to dictate the retuns. Of course all this is only if flowers.mobi going to be developed one day.

Oh, by the way, I would normally look at the image of flowers and the vase few times before making the purchase. I hope it would be possible to do the same on flowers.mobi

Time will tell,

GH

 

[matt_bodis]

I think he could've gotten a better deal on Flowers.com.

 

[GeoOwners]

I can see risking on a great generic but I see so many peeps already buying questionable .mobi...I have "rethunk" my .mobi already after thinking today, many domains make $ from the adsense program...we all agree .mobi is made for those small screens...it will be impossible to put adsense ads on a .mobi page imo...the content alone will be hard to read much less reading ads in the column...my 2 cents

Tim

 

[nrmillions]

I can see risking on a great generic but I see so many peeps already buying questionable .mobi...I have "rethunk" my .mobi already after thinking today, many domains make $ from the adsense program...we all agree .mobi is made for those small screens...it will be impossible to put adsense ads on a .mobi page imo...the content alone will be hard to read much less reading ads in the column...my 2 cents

Tim

advertising on mobile phones is definitely going to be the next big step in the advertisement world. cellphones are the only thing they dont advertise on and billions of people use them. it is going to be huge. there are billions of dollars to be made from it. there have been many articles lately about it.

 

[snoop]

And let's say you buy 200k worth of traffic domains based on 12 months revenue which is the norm, in 5 years you would have made back 1 million dollars, and on top of that, still had 200k worth of domains, so total 1.2 million. I don't see flowers.mobi going for that much or anything close to that.

Love it, now tell me where you can buy 200k worth of domains on 12 months revenue short of buying names that will die out or have the owner sued into the ground well before the 5 years is up?

I think he could've gotten a better deal on Flowers.com.

You would say flowers.com is worth less than $200,000?

 

[think]

It only takes a little bit of research to understand the metrics that motivated the sale of Flowers.mobi.

We are talking about a consumer orientated keyword that almost 2 million people searched for last month according to Overture.

The bid per click for advertising on Yahoo (overture) was around $2.85 per click the last time I checked.

If mobi becomes the mobile default as it has a fair probability of becoming, Flowers.mobi stands to become a gold mine.

Obviously this is still to be seen and that is why it is called speculation but there are many signs pointing to the success of this tld.

For your information Flowers.com is owned by 1800Flowers.com and they were at the Traffic auction and were outbid for this domain.........

 

[vcool]

For your information Flowers.com is owned by 1800Flowers.com and they were at the Traffic auction and were outbid for this domain.........

I would not be surprised if Rick sells his flowers.mobi for $millions to 1800flowers.com in couple of years.

 

[-db-]

It helps that the buyer in this case (the "domain king"), had plenty of disposable income, and can afford the risk. And it took place at his own event. I don't think I would be called 'too' skeptical if I wondered what impact (if any) that might have had on the sale.

I mean, think about it... you are a domainer, you love domains, you love the game... you have a few drinks, you loosen up with friends, it's YOUR conference, with your name all over the place. You are a self-made millionaire with money to spare. The bidding gets going, the whole domain world is watching.... YEAH, Flowers.mobi, $200,000 right here.

Why not? :gl:

The publicity alone has already earned back part of that investment.

Hopefully, he's got developers working on the project already. I don't know what the future holds for .MOBI, but the time to strike is NOW for development. After seeing the results some NP members have achieved in the search engines, a person/company (with a large budget) could get a head start today, that might not ever be overtaken on the mobile web.

 

[satsdifference.com]

I agree

Great points DB

He was the man.

 

[MinionDH]

For your information Flowers.com is owned by 1800Flowers.com and they were at the Traffic auction and were outbid for this domain.........

OUCH I didn't know that..

 

[sags]

Maybe he can write the purchase off his taxes anyway.

 

[cursal]

I love the way he puts it "The upside is that a domain like this can be life changing"

Thats very interesting to hear. Life changing, give me a break here. I send flowers to my GF on a regular basis. If I have to type in my address in my mobile to send the flowers (unless the program can take my address, my GF's address and then my credit card details automatically in some magical way) I would rather make a call right away say to 1-800-flowers and get it done. Well, I guess I am short sighted. We will see, how many folks will buy flowers on the go and most importantly how many times. Since only the number of times you would choose is what that is going to dictate the retuns. Of course all this is only if flowers.mobi going to be developed one day.

Oh, by the way, I would normally look at the image of flowers and the vase few times before making the purchase. I hope it would be possible to do the same on flowers.mobi

Time will tell,

GH

I believe the Magic Way is called voice recoginition. I used to pay my phone bill that way. Only talking to the computer voice. Now I have a cellphone "text message" 3 keys and then send to pay the bill.

About ordering over the phone, let's say for flowers, once they have your account you just say your name or scroll to icon and click. All the rest is on file in there database and the whole transaction can happen in 2 mins or less.

I say .mobi is going to do something in the industry. The question is when...

 

[luxinterior]

It helps that the buyer in this case (the "domain king"), had plenty of disposable income, and can afford the risk. And it took place at his own event. I don't think I would be called 'too' skeptical if I wondered what impact (if any) that might have had on the sale.

I mean, think about it... you are a domainer, you love domains, you love the game... you have a few drinks, you loosen up with friends, it's YOUR conference, with your name all over the place. You are a self-made millionaire with money to spare. The bidding gets going, the whole domain world is watching.... YEAH, Flowers.mobi, $200,000 right here.

Why not? :gl:

The publicity alone has already earned back part of that investment.

Hopefully, he's got developers working on the project already. I don't know what the future holds for .MOBI, but the time to strike is NOW for development. After seeing the results some NP members have achieved in the search engines, a person/company (with a large budget) could get a head start today, that might not ever be overtaken on the mobile web.

Yet again a voice of reason in all this .MOBI hysteria that for the most part it appears is being created by some of the, how shall i put this...err..., 'newer' members of the 'domaining' fraternity.

It would be a real accomplishment if some of the newer members could actually take a second or two and step back from the keyboard, THINK, and give the idea just a second and realise that none of the 'seasoned' members of this board are giving too much credibility to all this .MOBI hype. Why could this be do you think? Could it be...shock, gasp, horror....that we've seen it before...Not just with domains but with numerous other so-called 'next big things'...If you really can't resist the urge then great...go ahead and buy a few but please show a little bit of reserve, style and coolness and keep it to yourself until the TLD actually takes off...I for one, and i'm sure i'm not alone, am quite frankly tired of your (and you know who you are) pompous, arrogant, grandstanding...

I see a couple of guys on the board really pushing and wanting this to be a success and I have to ask myself WHY? Is it because you've invested a chunk of change and would hate to admit you'd backed a loser?

Funny you mentioned 'having a few drinks' DB...that's exactly where I am and want is prompting me to take the time to post when...as you know...I normally keep a tight rein on my lips lest they run away with me like the last time I chirped in on someones ludicrous statements.

Take care and happy '.MOBIYING' !!!!

Lux

 

[namewaiter]

For your information Flowers.com is owned by 1800Flowers.com and they were at the Traffic auction and were outbid for this domain.........

All the metrics aside .. this is the most important aspect naysayers overlook.

flowers.com (1800flowers.com) was outbid by Rick ... they were willing to pay $190,000 for it ... they wanted the domain! Think they know their market?

 

[gamehouse]

Do you guys know about how long its been taking for so called voice recognition to reach a level where at least few hundred people use it? Voice recognition is one of those technologies which is working hard to strike a chord with usage but to no avail.

I hear many people saying, lol, soon you can speak off web address into your cell phone and the web will be opened. I hate to say, but that dreaming is going for a long a time now. I would be very happy if my cellphone connects to my buddy at least by voice recognition.

Also, why do you want to confuse common public to speak off the web address but type in anything else going further using that particular web. Or do you expect everything is done by voice recognition. oh la la, thats going to take few more years to achieve acceptable perfection.

Its one thing to say, technology is going to lead the life in few years, which might be true. Its another to KNOW what parts of technologies are actually making ahead at the end of the day. I know on namepros most of the members are domainers, check out howard forums to meet mobile (lol, is that how it is called in my country? I think its called cell, but .mobi is gTLD, kudos to ICANN overlooking the fact that mobile is not called mobile in all the countries in the world) yup, mobile mad people who change phones every three months. I was part of them once.

On the other hand, I wish you folks great returns, after all , you are all my friends on this great Namepros.

GH

I believe the Magic Way is called voice recoginition. I used to pay my phone bill that way. Only talking to the computer voice. Now I have a cellphone "text message" 3 keys and then send to pay the bill.

About ordering over the phone, let's say for flowers, once they have your account you just say your name or scroll to icon and click. All the rest is on file in there database and the whole transaction can happen in 2 mins or less.

I say .mobi is going to do something in the industry. The question is when...

 

[binaryman]

I want to quote Luxinterior
"It would be a real accomplishment if some of the newer members could actually take a second or two and step back from the keyboard, THINK, and give the idea just a second and realise that NONE of the 'seasoned' members of this board are giving too much credibility to all this .MOBI hype."

Really? "NONE" You could have fooled me. I had a look and there are plenty of seasoned members who have invested in .mobi

 

[GoPC]

I see a couple of guys on the board really pushing and wanting this to be a success and I have to ask myself WHY? Is it because you've invested a chunk of change and would hate to admit you'd backed a loser?

Or is it that you see a whole lot of people investing in mobl and hate to admit that you missed out?

Some have stayed away, others have joined in. So be it.

Don't feel threatened.

What I think you are hearing is HOPE. Belief in the extension.

And why not? You and 90% of the other folks swarming these forums speak about generic one-word dot common domains that make thouands of dollars a week as if they are still available and if you don't own one, there's something wrong with you. Anyone coming in at this point has missed the boat. In fact, anyone coming in in the past 10 years has pretty much missed the opportunity to hand reg a domain with that kind of potential.

Ah... but not with Mobi

Many a "seasoned" domainer has recalled how much the mobi rush feels like the good old days when you could still find a decent dot common.

So let them speculate. It's not hurting you. You have nothing vested in their failure... if that's where you believe it will end.

Either you will have been right and saved yourself some money. OR you will have been wrong and will be like everyone else, having to pay a premium for a solid .mobi domain.

Roll the dice.

GoPC