Go West, dotMobi ... T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West Premium Name Auction, Las Vegas

We're prepping for February's T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West Conference in Las Vegas, and for our first 2008 premium name auction to be held there, hosted by Moniker.

We are super excited about the names we are offering this time round: banks.mobi, broadway.mobi, cards.mobi, doctor.mobi, floods.mobi, geneology.mobi, hollywood.mobi, lottery.mobi, naked.mobi, property.mobi, score.mobi, tickets.mobi and – appropriately enough given the venue – vegas.mobi. Oh ... and last, but definitely not least, the highly anticipated porn.mobi will be auctioned.

Our usual content obligations apply, and since these names provide some great development opportunities, I can't imagine anyone not wanting to develop these names.

See Moniker's auction site for details on participating in the auction and see the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West Conference site for more information on the whole T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West event.

Hope to see you all there!

Comments

[Paul G]

Hi Caroline,

Great list but totally confused how vegas.mobi, a reserved name is now being offered in auction. Can you explain this and is it a sign of things to come regarding other "city".mobi domains?

[Caroline Greer]

Hi Paul,

Vegas - which is an abbreviated term - was actually always a premium name but is currently showing publicly as reserved (simple error - now being changed). It is not a precedent for how reserved names will be treated in the future. Apologies for any confusion.

[Paul G]

Thanks Caroline for the clarification.

[Brian]

I dont think it will benefit the .mobi organization that it cost $499 just to be able to bid on domains if you dont attend the conference, that way its only the topdogs and insides who will have a chance of bidding. For .mobi it must be in your interest to have as many bidders as possible in order to sell the names as high as possible. Just my 2 cents....

[Michele Neylon]

TRAFFIC is seriously overpriced. It's a pity, as I wouldn't mind being able to bid on some of those names from here, but there's no way I'm paying $499 for bidding rights

[mike]

Please stop auctioning off these names.

Any company that put in a good RFP for the name should get it.

Auctioning these names putting them in the hands of domainers is horrible.

[mike]

I agree with the others that Moniker is too restictive because of the cost of the event and/or the cost to participate. Some of these high power names might however bring in some additional people not normally known to attend, but I doubt it.

Good luck none the less!

[Caroline Greer]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Of course, dotMobi has no say in the participation fees charged by this particular auction vendor. We have selected Traffic for the sale of these names since we have a good track record of success at that event. And $499 (€330) is not a huge amount when you consider the value of some of these domains.

We continue to look at the possibilities out there for future auctions. This space is getting more and more competitive. And remember that there was no fee applied for participation in the three Sedo on-line auctions conducted last year.

As regards auction vs RFP - we have debated that before many times on this blog. Without auction revenue, dotMobi would be unable to offer the suite of products that we do offer to the market: ready.mobi, dev.mobi (and everything that is available on that forum) and the soon-to-be-released DeviceAtlas product (previously known as phone.mobi). The revenue is also being used for our marketing campaigns and various other efforts. And since winning bidders are tied in to our auction end user Agreement, we also get content.

[Pete]

MTLD

Instead of doing more auctions, take care of the issues and buyers with the past SEDO auction. People are still up in the air with your delayed desicion after 2 months.

Also I personally don't think that TRAFFIC will give you the valuations you are looking for, they are full of domainers banking on .coms only.

Pete.

[Caroline Greer]

Pete,

We have been working on the Sedo situation for 2 months solid now. As per my previous blog article, that situation is extremely complex and there are a lot of moving parts, not necessarily visible to the outside eye. That said, we are making good progress.

As to your comment regarding interest in .mobi domains at Traffic - having sat through the live auctions, I can tell you that .mobi names always attract a huge amount of interest and some frenzied bidding. It is quite an extraordinary spectacle!

[Joseph]

Why the heck is the mTLD not holding people to their development requirements of Premium .mobi names? ....

Example: Pretty.mobi is a premium .mobi owned by a guy in Washington D.C., now he placed this premium .mobi onto auction at Moniker's SocialNetworking Auction....

http://marketplacepro.moniker.com/auction/detail.html?auction_id=186

Domain ID:D6862-MOBI
Domain Name:PRETTY.MOBI
Created On:11-May-2006 22:15:42 UTC
Last Updated On:30-Jan-2008 22:57:58 UTC
Expiration Date:11-May-2009 22:15:42 UTC
Last Transferred Date:04-Dec-2007 10:34:43 UTC
Trademark Name:Premium Name
Trademark Country:IE
Trademark Number:Premium Name
Date Trademark Applied For:2005-01-01
Date Trademark Registered:2006-01-01
Sponsoring Registrar:Moniker Online Services LLC (228)
Created by Registrar:mTLD Mobile Top Level Domain (4000002)
Last Updated by Registrar:Moniker Online Services LLC (228)
Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:MONIKER614288
Registrant Name:Sunrise Holdings
Registrant Street1:34A - 2755 Loughheed Highway
Registrant Street2:226
Registrant City:Port Coquitlam
Registrant State/Province:DC
Registrant Postal Code:V3B 5Y9
Registrant Country:CA
Registrant Phone:+1.16046280000
Registrant Email:newtonxxx@gmail.com
Admin ID:MONIKER614288
Admin Name:Sunrise Holdings
Admin Street1:34A - 2755 Loughheed Highway

[bob the accountant]

Why dont you open the accounts so everyone can see the direct flow of cash from auctions to promotion / development?

Nothing wrong with open accounts is there?

[Caroline Greer]

Bob,

What purpose would it serve for dotMobi to display its accounts to the world? We are not a public company and there is no requirement on us to do so. It is a rather unusual request.