A Biker's Domain

Well, another lesson learned. I sat there and watched as the new .mobi sponsored Top Level Domain (TLD) was proposed and thought "no way". I watched as it was approved by ICANN and thought "what are they thinking". There I was with all my experience and databases and programs and watched as the new extension was released. I ran some checks for the heck of it and found tons of the better keywords, and 3 letter or 3 number domains available, and I continued to hold back. As a supporter of the "One Web" idealogy, I was and still am against it's use. The fundamentals didn't make sense. It was more of a tech format than a domain. After all, any existing site on any existing TLD or ccTLD extension could just add pages as a sub-domain as easy as mobi.mysite.com or mysite.com/mobi. Why the heck would anyone need to buy a .mobi extension?

Well, it came down to my old lessons learned through the financial business. While I stick to my guns on true fundamental based valuations, the market runs away from me based on technical values and momentum. A stock or an extension doesn't make sense at all, but someone yells fire, and everyone one piles in driving demand and reducing supply.

That's what happened folks. I continued to sit there and lose good money because the stupid extension doesn't make any sense. While those who went with the hype, and added to it, made some good money. For example, the mobi registry has some strong backers, however small their investments, by no other than the great Google herself and several phone suppliers etc. The registry held back what they call "premium names" for later release. They didput up a small list of "premium" names for auction at the last T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference in October for continued hype value. Not a complete surprise, the conference founders bid up flowers.mobi to $200k adding to the fever.

I don't know how long they can keep the hype going or if they can really gain acceptance by the public down the line, but for the first couple months, .mobi investments have proved to be winners. One of my friends from the forums (Think) jumped in a bit and has made a killing. But I see all these n00bs that are regging garbage like submarine.mobi with no clue whatsoever, and I doubt any amount of hype or even fundamental acceptance is going to save them from losing money.

I did register a few as defensive mobi regs, (to cover coms and website plans I have in progress) and will probably add maybe up to a dozen more for the same reasons, but as for speculation, I think the boat has already sailed.