dotMobi

dotMobi goes to Disneyland!

We're getting ready to attend our fifth T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference which will take place 20-24 May in Orlando, Florida. At this event, dotMobi will make 16 of its valuable premium names available as part of the Moniker-sponsored auction (including a live auction segment on 23 May). The selection of generics for this auction is bound to attract a lot of attention: airlines.mobi, boats.mobi, company.mobi, computers.mobi, drugs.mobi, escort.mobi, forsale.mobi, films.mobi, men.mobi, mortgage.mobi, religion.mobi, records.mobi, ringtone.mobi, sales.mobi, show.mobi and strip.mobi.

dotMobi followers know the drill as regards content requirements attached to these premium names -- sites should initially consist of a dotMobi compliant parking page with a live web site containing relevant content to follow within a six-month period. In case you don't, we covered the basics in our auction press release this Monday past.

Anyone interested in participating in the auction should contact the event organizer for details on how to register. It is not necessary to attend the auction in person to bid ... but if anyone is planning to make the trip, be sure to look us up when you're there!

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.

December Online Auction: Next Steps

dotMobi would like to update the community on our efforts to resolve the issues relating to the Sedo auction that took place last December. We recognise that some people have been frustrated by the pace at which things have been moving, but this has been an extremely complex and difficult issue with many moving parts. That said, we are happy to report that significant progress has been made in the last couple of weeks.

We have now reached out to all of the auction stakeholders -- both the high bidders in the extended auction and those who received a notice in error as a result of the crash. We put a compromise proposal on the table and asked for feedback. Fewer than 10 of the more than 70 stakeholders rejected our proposal; since the proposal appears to have the support of the community, we are now moving forward with it. In the small number of cases where competing claims remain, we will provide appropriate assurances to the bidder entitled to the name under our proposal.

We will be contacting each bidder individually over the next few days, but the next steps will be as follows:

1. We have already delivered the authorisation codes for the names to Sedo for release in accordance with the proposal.
2. Each stakeholder will receive a detailed Agreement that describes the settlement, states our mutual obligations and releases claims arising in connection with the auction.
3. Sedo will release the codes once the stakeholder has faxed a signed copy of the Agreement to Sedo and wired the necessary funds to their Sedo account.
4. We will then begin to release the declined and substitute names to those who have faxed the signed Agreements to Sedo.

Clearly, the sooner people fax the Agreements and wire the funds, the quicker they will be in a position to register the names. And to participate in the allocation of declined and substitute names, signed Agreements must also be faxed to Sedo.

As we reach these final stages, we would like to thank everyone involved for their patience and understanding throughout this entire process. It has certainly been a unique experience with valuable lessons learned on all sides. The passion and commitment demonstrated by the community for .mobi domains has been extraordinary  and that is what excites us most as we draw a line under this chapter and move on.

They say, "It never rains in Southern California" ...

... but it was raining buckets last week during DOMAINfest Global 2008 in Hollywood. It was also raining domainers who are enthusiastic about dotMobi and that gravitated to our exhibit to try to win the totally cool new Nokia N95 we gave away just before the live auction. The lucky winner was Ken Bhullar, the Chief Idea Officer for Unlimited, Inc. in the greater Los Angeles area. Ken has registered 200-plus .mobi names, and it was a pleasure speaking with him and addressing the DOMAINfest audience on how we are reinvesting the dollars we earn from our Premium Name auction sales back into tools and resources such as site.mobi, dev.mobi and ready.mobi that will help Ken and others develop and monetize their .mobi assets.

For those of you that we missed at DOMAINfest, we hope to see you at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West in Vegas in a few weeks.

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!

dotMobi Community Proposal re: Sedo Auction

Over the last six weeks, dotMobi has been working hard to resolve the problems that arose from the 5 December 2007 Sedo auction. As many readers will know, we had re-scheduled an auction replay for 23 January, but this was subsequently postponed due to feedback from the community that this was not the best approach. We are conscious that the community is looking for a speedy resolution to the situation and we share that sentiment. We have a lot of work lined up for 2008; it is going to be an exciting and busy year ahead, and no-one is more eager to move on and get going than dotMobi.

That said, we were faced with a very complex and unique situation that required a lot of our attention and time. At all times, we have acted with the best interests of the community in mind. We have listened to all stakeholders, we have consulted widely and we are now ready to respond.

Online Auction Update: Postponed

As you're likely aware, dotMobi, for a number of reasons, chose to exercise its legal right to void the Sedo-hosted online auction of December 2007.

Since voiding the auction, our goal has been to identify a way forward that is fairest to all and that best facilitates the development of high-quality content for mobile web users. After further review, we have been able to identify some cases where it may be possible to allocate registration tokens without an auction (and without substantial controversy). The remaining names will be included in a new auction.

To resolve as many disputes as possible, dotMobi has postponed the auction previously announced for January 23, 2008. The rules for this new auction have not been fixed, and dotMobi will carefully consider any suggestions from the community with respect to the new auction’s structure. Please feel free to email your suggestions to premium@mtld.mobi.

Open Letter to the dotMobi Community from Trey Harvin, dotMobi CEO

Dear Members of the dotMobi Community:

We have been following the discussions surrounding the dotMobi online auction, hosted by Sedo, that was scheduled to end on 5 December 2007. We think that there are several key misperceptions in the community, and I would like to clear them up so that we can continue having constructive dialogue and move forward.

We have noticed that some people seem to believe that the auction participants who received notifications and invoices before the extension of the auction were the highest bidders at the close of the original auction period.

Sedo, however, tells us that:

a) this is clearly not true in some cases,
b) this is unlikely to be true for the names generating the most activity, and
c) this is possibly not true for any of the auctions.

To those points, Sedo has told us the following:

Update: Sedo Premium Name Online Auction #3

Over the past couple of weeks, we have reviewed the Sedo auction which closed on December and spoken with many members of the dotMobi community – developers, brands, and domainers. Sedo's systems problems at the end of the auction created confusion for everyone (including dotMobi) and the result was unsatisfying for us and community participants. The question is, “What is the fair and right course of action for the good of the whole community and everyone collectively involved?”

Permitting the auction to stand, whichever ending time was validated, would invariably disadvantage some auction participants. Therefore, we are supporting the rights of everyone involved by exercising our own rights to void the auction results of December, and plan to conduct a new auction beginning January 23, 2008.

In the meanwhile, we continue to examine Sedo's preparedness to handle the historically high level of bidding the recent dotMobi auctions have drawn. Sedo has had a solid track record for its auction operations in the past, and they have assured us that they are dealing with each of the systems and process issues that have been found to date. We continue to hold Sedo and its commitment to the community in high regard, but we will always be diligent in protecting our partners and friends in the community from problems of this sort.

We believe that our actions now are the best, most fair course of action for the dotMobi community as a whole, and we will continue to protect your interests in everything we do.

– Trey Harvin, CEO, dotMobi

What a Day....

It takes some doing to crash Sedo's servers....but we managed it! Tensions were high in the last half hour of yesterday's auction as it became apparent that Sedo's servers were buckling under the pressure of the sheer volume of traffic on the auction site. A first in the history of Sedo and it speaks volumes about the popularity of dotMobi's premium names.

A decision was taken to extend the auction by three hours and that time was spent working on the system, contacting all bidders and contacts, posting blogs, updating sites etc. [And we would like to say a big thank you to all those who helped with the efforts]. Within an hour it was apparent that traffic was back up again and we closed with a spectacular result - over $2 million in sales with music.mobi reaching  $616,000 and games.mobi fetching $401,500. Thanks to all who participated!

This is a tremendous result and it could not have come at a better time as we lay our plans for 2008 and continue with our efforts on ready.mobi, dev.mobi and some new technology that we have planned (stay tuned for more on that one). Stick around folks - 2008 is going to be our best year yet!