.tv Round 1: .tv v. mobi

[*AllThings.tv*]

People continue to ask me whether they should expand their domain portfolio to include dot mobi domains. My answer is maybe, but only if you can get good general keywords. However, they were most likely taken in the first few rounds of the dot mobi acquisitions since they were somewhat affordable as compared to dot tv keyword names, which are priced as premium names.

Anyway, I thought it would give everyone a chuckle to put this together based on some of the emails I have received:

This is on www.mobi:

There are four times as many mobile phones as there are PCs in the world. Your site looks fine on a PC...but how does it look on a mobile phone?

This is a good issue to raise, but this not a domain name issue. It relates to the configuration and programming of your website. You can make ANY website whether it is a .com, .tv, .info, .gov compatible on both phones and PCs.

.mobi is the first – and only – top level domain dedicated to users who access the Internet through their mobile phones.

Hmmm, I can't figure out what advantage this confers other than bragging rights. Many people are just learning what .com, .net, and .org really are supposed to mean, I wonder how long until they can recognize .mobi. Do .mobi domain owners get more support than any other domain owners? Not the last time I checked.

Okay, enough with .mobi, lets see what's on .tv's website:

Internet users from around the globe are adopting .tv as their Web address of choice. .tv works exactly like a .com or .net address, but allows you to brand you or your company using the most recognized two-letter symbol in the world—"TV."

Wow, no BS here. I cannot argue with the claim that TV is "the most recognized two-letter symbol in the world."

I suppose that is where they get the

"Memorable. Meaningful. Marketable"

slogan they run on their home page.

Lets just assume for the record that .tv and .mobi are even on the scorecard. Even if .mobi tries to counter that .tv is not as marketed as well as .mobi, .tv will still deliver the knockout punch.

In a world where the number of characters one must type into their phone to get to a certain location matters, why would I want my visitors to have to type two additional characters to get to my website especially when I can deliver the same content irrespective of the type of domain?

Maybe its me. Maybe I am blind or maybe I am too jaded at this point in time to understand why it would be a much better strategy for me to deliver multimedia content to my users across a .mobi address rather than a .tv address.




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[nrmillions]

compare the sales of .tv with the sales of .mobi. .tv has been out for years and mobi has only been out for a few months. I hardly ever see .tv names in Dnjournal. Just in the last few days I have seen a couple mobi names sell for 30k+. You need good general keywords for any extension whether it is .com, .tv, or .mobi. .tv is just one of hundreds of cctld and one of hundreds of domains for computers. .mobi is the only extension for mobile use only. You could still make .tv a mobile compatible name but it isnt required to be. .tv is shorter extension by 1 letter than .com so does that mean .tv is worth more than .com? Look how fast kids type entire text messages that are a paragraph long. How long do you think it takes them to type in 1 or 2 extra letters, especially on a qwerty keypad. If voice recognition becomes big and if cellphones ever default to mobi then mobi will be worth a fortune too. Also look at all the big companies like microsoft and google who are behind .mobi and compare that to who is behind .tv. By the way, I like .tv and .mobi both and i own some .tv names but I think mobi is a better investment right now.

 

[equity78]

SO as no one wastes their time typing if this turns into a flame war between .mobi and .tv the thread will be deleted not closed, DELETED so everyone knows up front so think about how you reply

 

[RogueWriter]

In the end, the success of an extension comes down to a few obvious factors:

1. Pricing
2. Brandability
3. Marketing of the extension in general
4. High profile usage

.mobi definately has an edge on pricing, it allows that extension to leapfrog several years worth of marketing, IMO. Domainers and end users can pick up - or did pick up - keywords that were just too expensive on the .tv side, which fleshed the extension out quickly. From out of nowhere, it suddenly is an extension where people are debating whether it or .tv has the best chance of dominating.

With brandability, .tv seems to have an edge, simply because the extension is perfect. .mobi is a 'cute' extension, though, rather hip, to use a 70's cliche. So while not as perfect as .tv, arguably, I think it was a clever creation.

It has often been said that enough money can overcome a competitor's branding. Back in college, I seem to recall the example of GM. Suppose GM wanted to dominate the ice cream market. It's just a matter of them either buying a chain out, or creating a new one, and spending billions in advertising on that new chain. It all comes down to how badly GM wants to be in that niche. And, .mobi seems to have had a lot of brilliant marketing attached to it's land rush. People were very aware of it. .tv has a bit of history to it, and it seems to have been accepted by most of the primary entertainment industry movers as a legitimate extension for their niche. So, rather than dominating one or the other, it just looks to me like a bit of healthy competition for eyeballs.

When a surfer comes across a .mobi and .tv extension, they aren't going to care what the extension itself is: they are going to care primarily how useful the site is to their specific needs. In the case of memorable sites, the extension will have little to no effect on the surfer. When it comes to average, useful, but not truly memorable sites, the extension will help or keep the surfer from finding their way back.

All of this just to say it's a tossup? I guess so! Because of the pricing issue, though, I would think that .mobi will continue to be found in the dnjournal, more so than .tv .