Company asks ICANN to let it auction off short domain names.
dotMobi is asking ICANN (pdf) for permission to auction off remaining one and two character .mobi domain names. Back in 2008 dotMobi requested permission to release one and two character domain names through an RFP process. Now the group wants to auction off any remaining ones, and then open up unclaimed short domains to general registration.
Many other registries have released (or are in the process of releasing) one and two character domain names, which was originally forbidden for gTLDs. .Biz had successful auctions for its short domain names. Even .net might be getting in on the action soon (VeriSign has withdrawn its request to release one and two character .net domains.)
.mobi is one top level domain name where a very short domain could pay big dividends given that people access .mobi sites through small keyboards on mobile phones. Still, these short .mobi domains would have sold for a lot more a couple years ago before the TLD fell out of favor amongst domain investors. How far has .mobi fallen? We might find out next month at TRAFFIC, when flowers.mobi will be auctioned with no reserve. It originally sold for $200,000.
Razz says
great
first i heard of this
thing a good move
get them out there, and some money for registry
hopefully many will get develioped or endusers will get
i don’t expect kings ransoms, but solid xx,xxx sales are likely all round
be interesting to watch
also flowers .mobi, a low reserve lol
lets see what happens
Steve M says
The last blowout before the burial is complete.
Ah, .mobi, we hardly knew thee.
ps Please keep a nearby plot open for .co.
DomainersChoice.com says
None of the phone I have seen or used have a .mobi button and none of them go by default to .mobi, if you only type a keyword. I don’t think selling the single letters will help to revive .mobi.
scotty says
I think .mobi has great potentional, especially now that facebook and twitter are “doin their thing” on mobile phones…what do you think about FB.mobi (facebook.mobi) I think i would like to own that now, for sure!
I would not sell that one for xxx! But then again, i got a soft spot for 2 character domainnames…
nash says
guess what recently happened…
use any mobile device (web enabled) and type the following websites:
http://www.thestreet.com
http://www.fidelity.com
guess where you will be redirected (yes and I think if not mistaken happened recently). You got it, to the following:
http://www.thestreet.mobi
http://www.fidelity.mobi
comments please….. I think (not 100% sure) but before they used to redirect to the m. and now they changed to the .mobi
Gluten Free Diet says
Are they still offering these names free if you apply for them by their Request for Premium process? I think it costs to apply, though.
Billig Reisen says
There is some discussion about this on the mobility.mobi forum. Dotmobi’s PR guy Vance Hedderel is answering questions there and he does not sound happy with how blogs handle this topic.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Billig –
Well, if Vance has something specific about an article on a blog that he feels is inaccurate, he should probably contact the author. dotMobi’s request is pretty clear; it wants to be able to auction off any one and two character domains that aren’t allocated through RFP.
scotty! says
Nope, i had to pay a registration fee, but what are we talking about here, a couple of bucks, i
would think that anyone can afford a .mobi domain… I think its gonna go up eventually, the phones are taking more and more a significant place in, in our day tot day lives…and that nobody has one, is just a question of good marketing, one big outed advertisement campaign and when the kids say:YEAH, .mobi says tsjitsjing….