More than 218,000 names registered worldwide; flowers.mobi sells for $200,000
DUBLIN, Ireland, Nov. 1 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- dotMobi, the official
worldwide registry for the .mobi domain, announced it has reached two new
significant milestones since its successful September public launch. The
general demand for .mobi domain names continues to grow rapidly with more
than 218,000 .mobi registrations by customers in 104 countries around the
world. Additionally, at auction, the first set of dotMobi Premium Domain
Names generated some of the highest market demand seen in 2006 for higher
value domain names.
The first set of nine dotMobi Premium Domain Names were auctioned via
Moniker.com during the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East domain conference on October 27,
2006, and achieved record results for a new TLD (top level domain). Selling
for $200,000 and $100,000, flowers.mobi and fun.mobi respectively, are among
the top 20 domain sales for 2006 -- unprecedented for a newly introduced TLD
(top level domain).
"I bought flowers.mobi because I believe in the near future people will
use their mobile phone -- more than a computer -- to buy flowers quickly and
efficiently wherever they might be," said Rick Schwartz, the new owner of
flowers.mobi. "My company looks forward to launching the world’s first
mobile site for flowers and becoming a dominant force in this new space."
dotMobi’s open standards for mobile content are gaining momentum among
existing registrations with sites being added on a daily basis.
"It is obvious that dotMobi strikes a chord with content providers large
and small who want to build a direct to consumer mobile channel," said Neil
Edwards, CEO of dotMobi. "dotMobi provides the first open solution for
Internet-based content on a mobile phone that the average person can afford
and access. We are excited to see such a positive and strong market response
to dotMobi this early in our business."
The dotMobi Premium Names list is a compilation of commonly used words
and phrases which dotMobi has set aside for equitable allocation as an
alternate to the traditional "first come, first serve" procedure. These names
will be distributed in batches through 2008 using both auction and Request
for Tender (RFT) processes.
The first set of .mobi domain names to be offered through the RFT process
are news.mobi, ringtones.mobi, sports.mobi and weather.mobi. Additional
information on the process is scheduled to be released on November 6.
The list of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)
accredited registrars for dotMobi domain names can be found at:
http://dotmobi.mobi/registrar .
For more information on .mobi domains and how to register .mobi domains,
visit http://dotmobi.mobi . Visit the dotMobi blog at http://blog.mobi .
About dotMobi
dotMobi (the informal name of mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd.), a joint
venture company based in Dublin, Ireland with offices in Washington, DC, is
leading the development of Internet usage from mobile phones by switching on
the .mobi domain name. Unique among domain name providers, dotMobi ensures
that services and sites developed around .mobi are optimized for use by
mobile devices. On-the-go consumers can have confidence that the Internet
site or service will work from their mobile device when using the .mobi
address.
dotMobi is backed by leading mobile operators, network and device
manufacturers, and Internet content providers, including Ericsson, GSM
Association, Hutchison 3, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung
Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefonica Moviles, TIM and Vodafone.
dotMobi is also a sponsor of W3C’s Mobile Web Initiative.
