I was writing an article for Phrooti - .mobi is coming! - and I realised yes it might be coming to the rest of the world but it doesn't look like it is coming to South Africa.
The .mobi extension is a new top-level domain name for web sites that target mobile devices. It has a very catchy tag line – Internet Made Mobile. Content published on these sites will be audited for suitability and users will browse the .mobi Internet namespace confident that the sites they visit will behave appropriately on their mobile device. With 4 mobile phones sold for every 1 PC this is potentially a massive and under exploited market. (yeah once they get internet we can start exploiting them...don't think there is a nicer way to say it).
The .mobi name registration is going through 3 complicated stages:
- Sunrise registration (now till 25 Sept) - companies with registered trademarks can take up their name. Brands such as Virgin, Fanta, IBM have already been reserved.
- Landrush registration (26 Sept till 10 Oct) - where applicants pay a premium to try and grab their choice of address.
- General registration (11 Oct onwards) - the general mayhem that passes for Internet name registration.
During the course of my research for the Phrooti article I realised none of the big South African brands were registered. What's wrong guys not interested in marketing to the 20 million SA cell phone users? Or is it just another case of typical African lethargy.....must be something they put in our water!
The .mobi logo and “Internet Made Mobile” tag line are
registered trademarks of dotMobi (mTLD Mobile
Top Level Domain, Ltd.). They’re base in Dublin, Ireland.
The large raspberry is for Phrooti (cos it's frooty) and South African brands (cos I couldn't spell: a loud, abrasive, spluttering noise made with the lips and tongue to express contempt)
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