When Rick Schwartz paid $200,000 for Flowers.mobi, there were three general reactions from the public; he was crazy for spending that kind of money, he rolled the dice on the .mobi extension, or the bid was rigged. After yesterday’s live TRAFFIC auction where .Mobi names fetched huge sums, I think it has become clear that Schwartz certainly made a calculated gamble, and the price of Flowers.mobi doesn’t seem as crazy. According to Moniker, below are the .mobi sales in the auction along with their prices:
poker.mobi $150,000
ringtones.mobi $145,000
news.mobi $110,000
shopping.mobi $55,000
email.mobi $50,000
scores.mobi $33,000
buy.mobi $32,500
podcast.mobi $25,000
cab.mobi $17,500
cash.mobi $12,500
pda.mobi $8,000
zipcodes.mobi $8,000
bill.mobi $3,000
I only own two or three .mobi names, and I can’t even remember what they are without logging into my Godaddy account. I believe .mobi names are something to keep an eye on, moreso than .info and .net, but I am still sitting on the sidelines for the most part. I’ve seen evidence that traffic continues to build for owners of .mobi names, and I’ve even tried to use the .mobi extension from my Blackberry on occasion (I wish Jet Blue owned JetBlue.mobi!)
With some major corporations beginning to use .mobi, including Bank of America (who is using and advertising it), consumers may slowly begin to directly navigate to the .mobi extension when using their handheld devices. As this happens, look for the value of .mobi names to increase.
Like the rising stock price of a hot IPO I am unfamiliar with, I will continue to watch the .mobi market and possibly invest when I think the time is right. I still believe .mobi names are highly speculative, but the more companies that adopt the .mobi as their online connection, the more valuable these names will become, and the smarter Rick Schwartz will look to us all.
