Traffic West: A Buyers' Market

It was in the "wee small hours" this morning when news reached us of the results of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West auction in Las Vegas. Like many others, we were initially surprised. However, when we analysed the sales over our cups of coffee this morning, it became clear that within the context of the whole event, .mobi domains had in fact fared extremely well.

First off, we are delighted that all our .mobi names sold in the live auction, given that just over a third of the total names in that auction sold. Clearly people once again voted for mobility and the mobile web as being the future of computing and communications. There were 9 six-figure sales at the event - porn.mobi being one ($110,000) - but no seven-figure blockbuster sales this time round.

It's apparent that the market as a whole has gone a bit soft and jittery. The signs of sluggishness have been there for quite some time: the world is facing potential financial crisis and that is affecting all markets, not just the domain market. The subprime lending issues in the USA triggered a nervousness in the world's stock markets late last year and, clearly, investors react to marketplace conditions. Domains are subject to economic cycles, and for that reason, some of yesterday's prices were somewhat depressed (unlike the lucky winning bidders!).

The good news is that cycles are -- by their very nature -- cyclical, and prices will undoubtedly rise again. Premium names continue to be a big focus for us this year, so stay tuned for news on further allocation rounds.

Last week was a big week for the dotMobi team in terms of travel and events as we hit both the ICANN Meeting in New Delhi and the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The troops returning home from that latter event report a seemingly lower-than-usual turnout of participants. The show organizers claim the numbers were the same, so let's just say getting into restuarants this year was not the problem it was in 2007. Another sign of the current economic climate perhaps? That said, it was a fantastic event for dotMobi and we will be sharing our full report of the week very shortly.

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