.Mobi to auction premium mobile domain names

[Rockefeller]

Mobile internet development company dotMobi is to auction off 15 select domains at the Traffic West 2007 conference in Las Vegas.

DotMobi, the informal name of mTLD Top Level Domain Ltd, is a Dublin-based domain name provider which ensures that services and sites developed around .mobi are optimised for use by mobile devices.

Although the company may change this list, the following .mobi names are scheduled for auction on 7 March: 'airfare', 'areacodes', 'cam', 'casinos', 'creditscore', 'directions', 'ea't, 'libre', 'loancalculator', 'models', 'newmusic', 'pics', 'pizza', 'realestate' and 'singles'.

These names come from the dotMobi Premium Names list. Rather than the traditional 'first come, first served' basis on which most domain names are sold, this is a list of commonly used words and phrases which dotMobi has set aside to be sold separately.

The names will be distributed in batches throughout 2008 using auction and Request for Proposal processes.

The names will join the current list of around 400,000 .mobi domains that have been registered since general registration commenced in October last year.

Neil Edwards, chief executive at dotMobi, said: "The sale of these 15 highly desirable names allows dotMobi to fund initiatives for the web developer and content provider communities, such as a developer forum and the free mobile readiness testing and reporting tool."

Edwards is hoping that this auction is as least as successful as the last one in 2006 when .mobi domain names sold for a combined total of just under $400,000.

"Last October, the Traffic auction put three .mobi domains into the top 15 emerging domain sales for 2006. The demand for these domains demonstrated the industry excitement around mobile content," he said.

"We expect this list of 15 names to draw an equal, if not greater, demand. And with the variety of free tools and developer partners we have, building content behind these names will be a simple and affordable proposition for the buyers."

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