The company behind the internet domain designed to help consumers find mobile-friendly content have teamed up with Sedo, an online domain name auction business, to launch the auction on 5 November 2008.
Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi, stated: "dotMobi has seen the total number of mobile Web sites grow by eightfold since November 2007. The mobile Web is truly coming into its own as a unique medium, and the names available in this auction will be key in helping consumers find content designed specifically for their mobile phones."
The first time the mobile domain names had been sold through an auction process rather than on a first come, first served basis, was in October 2007. One hundred mobile web addresses were sold to the highest bidders with the auction generating more than $850,000 for the continued creation of mobile content tools.
Hosting.mobi sold for $101,000, bank.mobi had a price tag of $51,501, and download.mobi went for $51,500. Mark Boost, managing director of UK domain registration company, LCN, noted: “Website owners have been increasingly adopting the .mobi web extension to inform customers that their site is optimised for a mobile device.With consumer adoption of mobile internet usage within the UK consistently increasing, largely due to the recent spike in sales the Apple iPhone 3G, responsibility for business owners when taking into account the role the mobile device can play in helping them engage with customers is becoming a lot more imperative.”
Mobile phone users in the UK accessed the internet via their handsets almost 16 million times throughout the month of May. And, due to the fact that mobiles have unparalleled reach, with over 90% of the UK population owning one, if not more, handsets, businesses are increasingly embracing the need to provide a better mobile experience for their web visitors by letting consumers know that a site will work on a mobile phone.
Prior to the premium .Mobi domain auction, .mobi domain names are available to register for only £15 per year at LCN.