dotMobi RFPs for news, ringtones, sports and weather

I've been in the domain name industry for over 10 years, and I’ve never seen another TLD do what dotMobi is now doing: accepting Requests for Proposal (RFP) offers for domain names. dotMobi has always said it cares about content and this is another way of showing that. Rather than putting names up for auction or distributing them via “first-come, first-served” methods, dotMobi is allocating news.mobi, weather.mobi, sports.mobi and ringtones.mobi to four qualified applicants. 

It’s no secret that our first set of Premium Names was recently sold via live auction at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East. flowers.mobi went for $200K and fun.mobi went for $100K. And like we’re doing with all registered .mobi names, we’re working hard to make sure relevant content is developed behind those auctioned names.

But now, with news.mobi, weather.mobi, sports.mobi and ringtones.mobi, we’re focused more strongly on content; similar names in other TLDs have sold for incredible amounts – and as I noted above, .mobi names can pull big sums – but that’s not the point here. Our RFP process is about maximizing the development of each Premium Name, securing robust content, optimizing the mobile experience and providing the mobile community with new features and services. Anyone from anywhere can apply as long they follow the RFP process rules and get their applications in by February 16, 2007.

We’ll offer additional Premium Names in 2007, through RFPs and auctions, but these four names represent a new way for both entrepreneurs and existing content owners to enter the mobile marketplace. And now we have even more help available for those developers with http://dev.mobi. If you have visited it yet, you’ll see some cool tools, resources, forums, blogs and training to get .mobi content up and running.

By the way, more than 260,000 .mobi names have been registered. If you want to see a sampling of some live sites, check out the .mobi Site Showcase.

Comments

[hindustan]

Its good to see dotmobi is focused more on website development as opposed to just selling the name to the maximum bidder. I feel dotmobi also needs to advertise ".mobi" as a new domain extension meant specifically for mobile devices. Here in India when I mention hindustan.mobi they ask me what is that, I have to explain them that its a website with new domain extension ".mobi" meant specifically for mobile phones. I feel dotmobi needs to put some resources aside to let people know that there is a new domain extension called ".mobi" meant specifically for mobile phones. As it stands now, its hard to market a .mobi website in India, as the need of the hour is that the consumer in general needs to be aware of a new domain extension ".mobi" first. I am happy to see dotmobi focusing a lot on making sure .mobi websites are actually mobile compliant, by tools like MobiReady report at dev.mobi .

I feel dotmobi should also set some resources aside to educate people about a new domain extension ".mobi", especially in countries like India, China, Russia which are going to be the future leaders in mobile growth.

Just my two cents.

hindustan.mobi

[Pinky Brand]

Hindustan: Nice to hear your comments on the MobiReady report and awareness. We are working on some programs to build consumer awareness so stay tuned!

[Yuriy Sorokin]

fyi url not available:
RFP process rules
http://pc.mtld.mobi/switched/premiumsales.htm

[Pinky Brand]

Dear Yuriy and any other readers:

Thanks for pointing out the dead link. It has been fixed. The correct link is
http://pc.mtld.mobi/switched/premiumsales.html

[Achint Parekh]

sounds like a great opportunity for anyone in the mobile content industry. Any idea/estimates as to what traffic something like ringtones.mobi might get?

[Mike]

So who won these 4 names?

[Mike]

So who won these four names? March has been over for a while.

[Pinky Brand]

Thanks for your question. This was addressed last week in a comment posted by my colleague Caroline Greer on this blog at http://dotmobi.typepad.com/dotmobi/2007/05/mobile_web_audi.html#comment-69995688

[Mike]

Ok thanks Pinky. I'm excited to see who applied and won the names. It's good to know that there are contracts in place which will bind the winners to the names and make sure they develop them well. I don't want any more squatters!

[Kaka]

Good article :)