.mobi Some Interesting Research...

[sashas]

I've been looking at premium .com names (I mean the true premiums - Download, Shop, Books, etc,) and their equivalent .mobis..

Now many major corporations own premium .com names. But I couldn't find any premium .mobi names owned by big corporations, only domainers. None of the companies that own premium .coms own the same .mobis

Here's some examples:

Books.com and Book.com - owned by Barnes and Noble
Books.mobi and Book.mobi - owned by Domainers

news.com - CNET
news.mobi - domainer

mortgage.com - CITI
Mortgage.mobi - mTLD

VideoGames.com - GameSpot
VideoGames.mobi - mTLD

Play.com - Play Limited
Play.mobi - mTLD

Gifts.com - Giftco, Inc.

Call.com - Communicate Inc
Call.mobi - some domainer

Start.com - Microsoft
Start.mobi - mTLD

Download.com - CNET
Download.mobi - mTLD

Poker.com - Casper Enterprises
Poker.mobi - some domainer

Motorcycles.com - Honda
Motorcycles.mobi - Domainer

Rent.com - eBay
Rent.mobi - domainer

Shop.com - Shop Inc.
Shop.mobi -mTLD

Games.com and Music.com - owned by AOL
Games.mobi and Music.mobi - owned by Alvaro

Movies.com - owned by Disney
Movies.mobi - owned by Alvaro

Film.com - Real Network
Film.mobi - mTLD

Game.com - Hasbro
Game.mobi - mTLD

Buy.com - owned by Buy.com
Buy.mobi - some domainer

Mobile.com - ATT
Mobile.mobi - mTLD

Online.com - CNET
Online.mobi - mTLD

Loans.com - Bank of America
Loans.mobi - Domainer


It seems to me that all the major corporations haven't picked up any .mobis

Consider Loans.com, for instance. Bank of America owns Loans.com. But Loans.mobi was sold just a few days ago (for 30k, I believe). Bank of America did not buy it, some domainer did. Bank of America could've easily paid more and bought the name, if it wanted it.

Same goes for Games.mobi and Music.mobi. Alvaro belives that these two names can be flipped for a profit. But AOL stayed out of both these auctions. They could've easily out bid Alvaro. But they didn't..


Consider all the big names sold at the auction three days ago. All the top names were bought by domainers for astronomical prices. Sony, Universal, Nokia, Motorola, EA - major corporations that could've benefited a lot from acquiring premium names - stayed out of the auctions. The big names were all bought by one domainer. The end users that really matter, the ones with the big money, all stayed out...

Any ideas why it is so? Why big corporations are not buying their equivalent .mobi names?

 

[Mobi Cheap]

...
None of the companies that own premium .coms own the same .mobis
...

Isn't that good for .mobi, Sashas?

That way we're sure there will be a fair contest between .mobi and .com.

Who wins we can't predict in each case, but now we can predict there will be a match (as the premium .mobis sold at auction will be live in six months and many of the equivalent .coms will also be live and held by a direct competitor).

If a big corporate owned both the .com and the .mobi there might not have been a level playing field in each case - because the "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" mentality is still very deeply ingrained in corporate culture.
:ghost:
P.S.: The above is a link to Wikipedia, it's safe.

 

[allnicksgone]

Did big companies own those premiums before .com took off, or did they wait until after .com was a household term?

 

[teabag]

Interesting research, but you forgot that BIG company will be able to buy ANY name
anytime , cause they have alot of money.
They don't give a flick if it's 30K or 300K - they may spend them by the end of the next year for example. 300K less or 300K more in taxes for the BIG company isn't a big deal.

 

[connections]

why are loans and start two true "premiums"

I think true "mobi" premiums will be things that people use 100% on mobiles atm.

Like said around here before, other names that have more common use on PC's will take so long to become popular on mobiles.

but a good example of some buyers taking up .mobi are - insurance.com / insurance.mobi

ect ect

 

[Napkin.com]

I can't believe no one has
posted "the list" of companies
that DO have their generic .mobi's purchased.

where is it ?

I've seen it before... no one
dropping that puppy in this thread ?

 

[accent]

I hate it when people link to Wikipedia.

First I read how IBM uses fear to keep customers away from their competetors. {Your boss will be upset if you don't buy IBM (.com)}

Which takes me to the "Chewbacca Defense" -- WTH?

Which takes me to the "Twinkie Defense" -- Double WTH??

End result is an hour later I have to pull myself away and do something useful.

Was there a topic?
Oh yes - Small companies get to be big companies by innovation.
But big company presidents stay being big company presidents by avoiding risk. They want the proof, if it comes they will blast their way in. The stock holders will never notice the difference.

In this case I expect the auction was not even known about by those in control of such companies as AOL and Disney, and if it was it's potential was not understood. Witness the Dallas Cowboys and cowboys .com - the corporate world is old men who know very little about the Internet, much less the future mobile internet.

Which of course leaves the field open to those who will take risks and innovate.

 

[Napkin.com]

In this case I expect the auction was not even known about by those in control of such companies as AOL and Disney, and if it was it's potential was not understood.

holy crap... i posted something nearly identical at
the exact same time at DNF...

Here's my post:

IS THIS A POSSIBILITY:

MAYBE the large coporations don't even know
that their generic .mobi is up for auction at sedo?
I was viewing all of the auctions, and most of the GREAT names only had
400-500 visitors the listing.

I KNOW that sedo doesn't do much effort in contacting serious end
users to participate in the auctions.

If I am wrong, certainly correct me... and I'll cower down in shame

But honestly, is sedo contacting ANY serious end users when
premium names are coming to auction?

I know that the few premium GENERIC .com's that I've listed
on sedo auctions... they didn't pick up the phone at all and
try to reel in a big fish.

My opinion:

WHY haven't the large corporations jumped in yet?

3 things...

1. they are waiting to see if it catches on (and if it does, they certainly have the money to spend to buy the .mobi they want... no matter WHO owns it)
2. they might not even know that their desired .mobi is being auctioned off, since sedo doesn't prospect large buyers very well
and
3. it took them a while to see the value in a generic .COM so I doubt
they'll jump right in the generic .MOBI... it might take time.

Again, if my thinking or ideas are 100% wrong... it's just my opinion
and I don't feel strongly one way or another.

 

[sashas]

I can't believe no one has
posted "the list" of companies
that DO have their generic .mobi's purchased.

where is it ?

I've seen it before... no one
dropping that puppy in this thread ?

XF, I searched most of the premium names I could think of from the top of my head, many that I didn't list here (Cars.com and Cars.mobi, for example). Of course some companies own some generic .mobis, but its at least not the truly premium ones.
Even Microsoft, which is one of the .mobi backers, owns Start.com (which directs to Live.com), but Start.mobi is still owned by mTLD.
And heck, at least Nokia should've owned Phones.mobi - its one of the .mobi founders, after all.

And while its highly possible that the big companies didn't know of the auction, the overwhelming number of truly premium names being owned by domainers is something to take note of, particularly when names sell for 600k+ .

Also take for example a name like Style.mobi. Its owned by E!. But E! does not own the .com version - Style.com is owned by some other company. This further helps the non believer's argument that .mobi is for people/companies that don't own the .com.

Take a look at even your name. Jokes.com is owned by Comedy Central.

Someone mentioned Insurance.mobi and Insurance.com. I believe that deal happened around 2 months ago. There is still nothing at Insurance.mobi - someone just chose to protect their brand?

A few names owned by domainers is always welcome and good for promoting healthy values. But virtually all the premium names being owned by domainers just tells me that trades are being done mostly among domainers.
The reason LLL.coms are worth so much in the reseller market today is because a large number are owned by end users. As domainers, we basically wait for end user sales. But if even the founders haven't bothered to buy their industry names, it tells me something.

I was a skeptic about .mobi, but this research just makes me lean further and further towards the non believer part.

And please, don't mentioned .net/.org//.info etc. These extensions are never hyped as much as .mobi, nor are they ever mentioned as being .com competitors, nor are they being sold for 600k among domainers. Premium .net names still go for xx,xxx among resellers. Music.net wouldn't have fetched more than 200k at an auction.


Anyways. I don't think it makes any difference as to what we say here. If AOL one day thinks its worthwhile spending a million bucks on Music.mobi, thats fine. Speculation is the name of the game. I just wish though that people stop comparing .mobi and .com. True generic .coms get thousands of type-ins, and its going to take a long long time before generic .mobi names even get to 10% of that.

I just wanted to post some of the research I'd done this evening, thats about it.

Peace.

 

[gou]

Did you say any? TWC owns and operates Weather.mobi, for example. Does that not count?

 

[sashas]

Did you say any? TWC owns and operates Weather.mobi, for example. Does that not count?

I said a few

 

[DBADT2007]

I've been looking at premium .com names (I mean the true premiums - Download, Shop, Books, etc,) and their equivalent .mobis..

Now many major corporations own premium .com names. But I couldn't find any premium .mobi names owned by big corporations, only domainers. None of the companies that own premium .coms own the same .mobis

Here's some examples:

Books.com and Book.com - owned by Barnes and Noble
Books.mobi and Book.mobi - owned by Domainers

news.com - CNET
news.mobi - domainer

mortgage.com - CITI
Mortgage.mobi - mTLD

VideoGames.com - GameSpot
VideoGames.mobi - mTLD

Play.com - Play Limited
Play.mobi - mTLD

Gifts.com - Giftco, Inc.

Call.com - Communicate Inc
Call.mobi - some domainer

Start.com - Microsoft
Start.mobi - mTLD

Download.com - CNET
Download.mobi - mTLD

Poker.com - Casper Enterprises
Poker.mobi - some domainer

Motorcycles.com - Honda
Motorcycles.mobi - Domainer

Rent.com - eBay
Rent.mobi - domainer

Shop.com - Shop Inc.
Shop.mobi -mTLD

Games.com and Music.com - owned by AOL
Games.mobi and Music.mobi - owned by Alvaro

Movies.com - owned by Disney
Movies.mobi - owned by Alvaro

Film.com - Real Network
Film.mobi - mTLD

Game.com - Hasbro
Game.mobi - mTLD

Buy.com - owned by Buy.com
Buy.mobi - some domainer

Mobile.com - ATT
Mobile.mobi - mTLD

Online.com - CNET
Online.mobi - mTLD

Loans.com - Bank of America
Loans.mobi - Domainer


It seems to me that all the major corporations haven't picked up any .mobis

Consider Loans.com, for instance. Bank of America owns Loans.com. But Loans.mobi was sold just a few days ago (for 30k, I believe). Bank of America did not buy it, some domainer did. Bank of America could've easily paid more and bought the name, if it wanted it.

Same goes for Games.mobi and Music.mobi. Alvaro belives that these two names can be flipped for a profit. But AOL stayed out of both these auctions. They could've easily out bid Alvaro. But they didn't..


Consider all the big names sold at the auction three days ago. All the top names were bought by domainers for astronomical prices. Sony, Universal, Nokia, Motorola, EA - major corporations that could've benefited a lot from acquiring premium names - stayed out of the auctions. The big names were all bought by one domainer. The end users that really matter, the ones with the big money, all stayed out...

Any ideas why it is so? Why big corporations are not buying their equivalent .mobi names?

XF, I searched most of the premium names I could think of from the top of my head, many that I didn't list here (Cars.com and Cars.mobi, for example). Of course some companies own some generic .mobis, but its at least not the truly premium ones.
Even Microsoft, which is one of the .mobi backers, owns Start.com (which directs to Live.com), but Start.mobi is still owned by mTLD.
And heck, at least Nokia should've owned Phones.mobi - its one of the .mobi founders, after all.

Nokia happens to own http://forumnokia.mobi/ and http://nokia.mobi . Any chance your research found these two? How about the fact that phones.mobi is trademarked by Encirca, Inc? How about AAA, http://aaa.mobi? Amtrak, http://amtrak.mobi? DoubleTree, http://doubletree.mobi? Hilton, http://hilton.mobi? AXA financial, http://axa.mobi? BMW, http://bmw.mobi? FoxNews, http://foxnews.mobi? Time, http://time.mobi? Southwest, http://sxsw.mobi? And before I forget, yes some actually do re-direction, and controversy does surround over whether this actually has a negative impact on .mobi or not. I feel it doesn't, but I'm sure that others feel otherwise.

Additionally, mTLD has reserved a large list of premium .mobi domains that will be available for acquisition at later dates, three auctions have already been conducted with some of those premiums and others are still within their reserves, thus you will find that premium domains are under mTLD.

What I find most interesting is that this post once again focuses on the companies that do not have their equivalents in .mobi, while by your admission, you know of companies that do in fact have their equivalent in .mobi.

If that isn't a red flag to anyone that tries to form an unbiased opinion of whether .mobi is a good investment or not, I don't know what is.

This post only serves to confirm the fears .com portfolio owners have of the .mobi extension. Otherwise, why not post both sides and let the reader make their own opinion? It wasn't until another member commented on the companies that do own both .com and their equivalent .mobi, that it was mentioned.

 

[accent]

holy crap... i posted something nearly identical at
the exact same time at DNF...

I haven't been over to DNF all day, but these discussions move in a general way and I often find someone else had the same idea. Would you believe I agree with your post?

It does seem to be a case of one hand not seeing the other when companies such as Google and Nokea who are Mobi backers miss out on names that suit their businesses. 'Course someone would holler "foul" if they were involved in the bidding.

Ivory tower and all that - I expect the decision makers in these big companies were unaware, and uninformed. And probably would not listen unless it came from one of their golf buddies.

 

[noonoo1]

And probably would not listen unless it came from one of their golf buddies.

Oh sooo true! :sold:

 

[sashas]

Nokia happens to own http://forumnokia.mobi/ and http://nokia.mobi . Any chance your research found these two? How about the fact that phones.mobi is trademarked by Encirca, Inc? How about AAA, http://aaa.mobi? Amtrak, http://amtrak.mobi? DoubleTree, http://doubletree.mobi? Hilton, http://hilton.mobi? AXA financial, http://axa.mobi? BMW, http://bmw.mobi? FoxNews, http://foxnews.mobi? Time, http://time.mobi? Southwest, http://sxsw.mobi? And before I forget, yes some actually do re-direction, and controversy does surround over whether this actually has a negative impact on .mobi or not. I feel it doesn't, but I'm sure that others feel otherwise.

Additionally, mTLD has reserved a large list of premium .mobi domains that will be available for acquisition at later dates, three auctions have already been conducted with some of those premiums and others are still within their reserves, thus you will find that premium domains are under mTLD.

What I find most interesting is that this post once again focuses on the companies that do not have their equivalents in .mobi, while by your admission, you know of companies that do in fact have their equivalent in .mobi.

If that isn't a red flag to anyone that tries to form an unbiased opinion of whether .mobi is a good investment or not, I don't know what is.

This post only serves to confirm the fears .com portfolio owners have of the .mobi extension. Otherwise, why not post both sides and let the reader make their own opinion? It wasn't until another member commented on the companies that do own both .com and their equivalent .mobi, that it was mentioned.

Um...I mentioned "truly premium generic names" in my post, I believe. Last I checked, Nokia was a TM company name, so was FoxNews, so was BMW, so was AAA, and so was Amtrak. I didn't know that they came under the "premium generic name" category. Of course, they're completely premium names for typosquatters

You got my question all wrong I believe. I did not ask "which company owns their CompanyName.mobi". I asked "which company name owns a generic .com and also the same generic .mobi". Please go through my post again before responding.

 

[cac14850]

As far as aI am concerned this is not much of a problem. Insurance.mobi did sell to Insurance.com owners in the auction but other than that you are right. The costs to a large company of aquiring one of those names while not insignificant would be chalaked up as an advertising expense and cost less than a couple of primetime ads.

 

[Napkin.com]

Take a look at even your name. Jokes.com is owned by Comedy Central.

MAYBE I out bid Comedy Central on the auction

haha, us domainers do have more power than the big boys!

I'm kidding, I know they have no interest now...

I'd imagine they are waiting on .MOBI to catch on...

why blow the money now?

Once it becomes hot and it starts to get TYPE IN traffic
on the generics... THEN they will be interested.

.mobi has to get hotter first... honestly

 

[italiandragon]

is not FERRARI big enought?

 

[gou]

I said a few

I'm pretty sure that your original post says "I couldn't find any premium .mobi names owned by big corporations, only domainers. None of the companies that own premium .coms own the same .mobis."
"Weather" and "time" are some premium generics, and the .mobi versions are owned and operated by large corporations.

I apologize if I'm misunderstanding you in any way.

 

[tophatter]

Didn't anyone see the post at the top of the dot mobi threads???????????
Come on now,these companys were overlooked in your research...Here's the link....
http://www.namepros.com/dot-mobi/338176-mobi-sightings-post-them-here.html