Auction Premium Domain Names Through Sedo — dotMobi to
dotMobi will auction premium domains counting ATM.mobi and Cars.mobi through domain aftermarket Sedo.
dotMobi disclosed today that it will auction a number of premium domains through Sedo. dotMobi’s “Premium Names” consist of 5,500 commonly used words that dotMobi set aside rather than releasing for general registration. A number of those domains will be included in Sedo’s auctions.
The first Sedo auction will start on September 26, the one year anniversary of .mobi’s general launch, and last for seven days. The first auction will include 100 names and there will be additional auctions in October and November.
But dotMobi has applied restrictions on the buyers of these domains. The domains must be purchased with the intent of development, not merely as an investment. All domains purchased in the auction must be parked with a .mobi-compliant parking page following purchase, with a live web site with relevant content launched within 6 months of the auction. The live web site must score 4 out of 5 on .mobi’s compliance scale.
This is a smart move for .mobi. Although prices may not be bid as high since of the constraints, it ensures that .mobi domains lead to real web sites and are advertised to the public. If the public never catches on to .mobi, the registry’s long term prospects are limited.
Following an initial flury of headline grabbing sales, such as Flowers.mobi for $200,000, aftermarket sales of .mobi domains have cooled. But the occasional big ticket domain makes headlines — such as PhoneNumbers.mobi, noted by DNJournal to have sold for $28,000 this past week.
A complete list of domains for the first auction can be viewed here (pdf). Some of the domains for the first auction include cell.mobi, domain.mobi, forum.mobi, traffic.mobi, bank.mobi, loans.mobi, pets.mobi, police.mobi, and free.mobi.
