Your Successful & Failure Buy-In to Overly Hyped Up New Domain Extensions

[shellyboy911]

Hi,

I haven't bought into any new hyped-up domain extensions lately. The last time I got burned was with the .mobi launch.

I bought SUPPORT.mobi at SEDO auction for premium mobi release some years ago and loss money when I sold it a couple years later. There's just isn't a need for them since websites can easily redirect mobile users to a mobile page instead of relying on a whole domain extension.

Then there was the .TEL extension. Probably the most useless domain extension ever IMO.

So how are new GENERIC or even Country extensions? Post your success and failures in buying and selling these.

 

[Biggie]

only way to be successful with overly hyped extensions, is to get the top tier keywords, before you or someone else start hyping it.

as the same pattern repeats every time

 

[Theo]

Dot .me is doing pretty well, .co is close. Don't expect much from .sx and the like.

 

[katherine]

Be a registrar, so you are on top of the food chain.
After all, a lot of domaining activity goes by the greater fool theory.

 

[shellyboy911]

Dot .me is doing pretty well, .co is close. Don't expect much from .sx and the like.

Yeah, I've seen quite a few developed websites and new startups utilizing the .me extension. When I think of .me I think of about.me, I think this site is the best use of the .me domain by far.

 

[DomainsInc]

i lost big on .mobi but learned my lesson after that.

 

[Raider]

I bought SUPPORT.mobi at SEDO auction for premium mobi release some years ago and loss money when I sold it a couple years later. There's just isn't a need for them since websites can easily redirect mobile users to a mobile page instead of relying on a whole domain extension.

Can you share with us how much the Hype (if any) influenced your decision to buy?... Would you say you invested in more domains as a result of what you read?

A lot of noobs got burned, not just a little but a LOT.. One guy got burned for over 15K when he bought premium allocated .mobi's at auction, just like you did, Names I'm sure he believed would turn a substantial profit, Some say the hype had little influence, I disagree, Anytime you hype a investment, you give the investor the assurance he's looking for to make that investment.

 

[shellyboy911]

For sure, I used to invest in trends, whatever was new and hot I would leap into it.
Back then I really thought Mobi was the future of mobile domains. Mobile's the future and you gotta have a premium .mobi, I thought.
I thought for sure I hit it big time when I owned support.mobi . Just like support.com, but for mobile support.

I waited a couple of years to resell, and dot mobi just kept crashing downwards.

 

[Gerry]

.eu was a total disaster for me.

That was the most corrupt, insider, disaster and failure ever for me. Not a penny earned or sold.

 

[Makis77]

.mobi was the worst ever for me but to be honest I was new to domaining and registered .mobi's by the dozen. Learned my lesson after one year(in the meantime I've invested on .tv's where I lost some money too but last two yrs cash flow is more than positive).

 

[Raider]

For sure, I used to invest in trends, whatever was new and hot I would leap into it.
Back then I really thought Mobi was the future of mobile domains. Mobile's the future and you gotta have a premium .mobi, I thought.
I thought for sure I hit it big time when I owned support.mobi . Just like support.com, but for mobile support.

"Trends" meaning you saw domainers investing in Mobi and you followed suit? or did it have more to do with corporations investing? I ask because I'm interested in why you thought .Mobi had a future, maybe it will help others not to make the same mistake.

For me, I honestly never saw a future in .Mobi, just knowing that a mobile compliant web site can be delivered using ANY TLD, left open the question "Why do we need it?" It was reason enough NOT to make the investment (other than 1 domain) and I'm glad I didn't.

At any rate I'm sorry you lost money, and I appreciate your response.

 

[Raider]

i lost big on .mobi but learned my lesson after that.

My total loss with .mobi was $10, but I got that back with just one click, And strangely it was the only click it got in the 2 years I had it.

 

[shellyboy911]

"Trends" meaning you saw domainers investing in Mobi and you followed suit? or did it have more to do with corporations investing? I ask because I'm interested in why you thought .Mobi had a future, maybe it will help others not to make the same mistake.

For me, I honestly never saw a future in .Mobi, just knowing that a mobile compliant web site can be delivered using ANY TLD, left open the question "Why do we need it?" It was reason enough NOT to make the investment (other than 1 domain) and I'm glad I didn't.

At any rate I'm sorry you lost money, and I appreciate your response.

I saw that mobi was new, and a lot of domainers and corporations (like BMW.mobi) were jumping on board so that was the trend that I saw and followed. I didn't think about the browser redirect of mobile traffic or anything technical like that.

I guess it's like investing in the stock market with new IPO companies in a way. I too am down in the stock market

 

[Raider]

I saw that mobi was new, and a lot of domainers and corporations (like BMW.mobi) were jumping on board so that was the trend that I saw and followed. I didn't think about the browser redirect of mobile traffic or anything technical like that.

When corporations used .Mobi in their advertising and web development, they could afford it, But for the private individual it was a risk that many could not afford... It actually hurt when I saw some of them showing off the names they won and what they paid, thousands of dollars they will likely never recoup, and you have to wonder how many of them bought into all hype, For those who did the hyping, they really did these investors a great disservice.

As for browser redirects, Auto Detection and the demise of Mobi, all of that and more was covered in many heated threads here on DNF, you couldn't miss them.. It was Investors VS the Critics, and I'm proud to say that I am one of the critics, and let me say that I'm NOT a domain genius by any means, just a Girl who saw the writing on the wall while everyone else saw dollar signs.

Whatever you choose to invest in, I wish you the best of luck.. And if I can help you in anyway, feel free to send me a PM.

 

[katherine]

I remember the botched auction involving music.mobi, that sold for 600K when Sedo's servers crashed.
If I remember well there was a settlement after the auction so I'm not sure what the final price was.

Today that name would probably fetch high $$$$. Flowers.mobi went from 200K to 6K.
Domains do not always appreciate over time...

Some people have lost high five figures in .tel .xxx .asia
in .me too (the guy who bought porsche toyota etc).
.co too

In hindsight we now know that the new extensions have always performed below expectations.
.info is probably the most successful, yet there is very little value in it.

But there will always be dreamers willing to take a chance, because they think the second coming of .com is within reach.

 

[shellyboy911]

I remember the botched auction involving music.mobi, that sold for 600K when Sedo's servers crashed.
If I remember well there was a settlement after the auction so I'm not sure what the final price was.

Today that name would probably fetch high $$$$. Flowers.mobi went from 200K to 6K.
Domains do not always appreciate over time...

Some people have lost high five figures in .tel .xxx .asia
in .me too (the guy who bought porsche toyota etc).
.co too

In hindsight we now know that the new extensions have always performed below expectations.
.info is probably the most successful, yet there is very little value in it.

But there will always be dreamers willing to take a chance, because they think the second coming of .com is within reach.

Yeah I was a bidder at that "botched auction" you mentioned. Crazy 6 figures Mobi domains Sold.
Another reason why I thought I hit it big when I won support.mobi and other mobis for a mere $x,xxx combined.

 

[Biggie]

.mobi lovers got screwed when they showed that iphone with a .com url in the browser.


that shattered all the hopes that smartphones would utilize .mobi the way it was hoped.

the big fallacy in most predict theories, is folks believe because a "big company" invests in it, then that will be the sign of the times.


same scenerio happened with O.co

 

[Gerry]

Say what you will about mobi. I still have several that do get traffic and do generate some revenue.



The most recent launch that I recall being a massive disaster was the .cm. Wow, people got taken for a ride.

Anytime you have a registry run by domainers and they promote it as the HOT alternative for typos to .com, red flags should go up. I recall several threads on here shortly after launch about the massive amounts members paid for some of the domains and got no (if any at all) traffic.

 

[Raider]

.mobi lovers got screwed when they showed that iphone with a .com url in the browser.

that shattered all the hopes that smartphones would utilize .mobi the way it was hoped.

The Iphone was just a fad, NO way would anyone want to carry around a phone with a massive screen size like that.

Fast forward to today and we see the same same crowd telling us how great the Galaxy S is over the Iphone.