MobileFone.com $65,260.00

Really nice brandable variant today at Snapnames. This name should do 200+ unique a day..  I think it's actually worth a lot more but I chickened out in the end because its a brandable variant (not correctly spelled english), then I changed my mind because its sooo brandable but it closed before getting the bid in. I lost autoauction.com in the same way a few years ago..  it was $20,000 (i think at namewinner) ..  what's autoauction.com worth today!?... oh brother!..   I will probably be saying the same thing about mobilefone.com soon enough.  Sincere congrats to the buyer.  Money in the bank IMO

I asked Vern to say something witty about today's auction for this post.

Vern says: "Trying to sound witty in your blog post is like trying to pee at the urinal next to the male stripper on ladies night at the Ocean Beach Hotel ..  "

Very nice of you to say Vern..  but you are twice as witty as I am.. and there's the reason I use the stall on ladies night bro  :-)

Other auction action today:

FreeWebDesign.com $32,000.00

iPromotions.com $4,400.00

Cavies.com $9,876.00 (Some kind of guinea pig )

StorageShelf.com $2,037.00

Fados.com $3,700.00 (some kind of dance they do in Lisbon)

BilliardHall.com $2,656.00 (I smelll a comeback - dusting off my pearl inlaid cue)

Karmanos.com $3,300.00 (last name?)

SecondAct.com $12,472.00

TheGarage.com $8,000.00

Comments

[Gabe]

Hey Frank,

I couldn't even get out of the starting block with MobileFone.com :). Just wondering on how your operation is set up with upcoming auctions. I'm certain that you have some sophisticated software to check all the stats (ovt, alexa, etc.) but what about individual research on the background/meaning on each name for possible use? I mean knowing that Cavies is some type of guinea pig and Fados is a dance in Lisbon - you must have a crack team of researchers checking out each name...curious to hear how the Name Administration team works.

***FS*** You know .. a lot of it is done by hand. Very painstaking manual process .. I have automated disctionaries that cut down the workload.. and even today there is still some secret sauce in there.. but by-and-large it's still very finicky detail work. I think most domainers wind up become generalists with oddball expertise in all sorts of niches we never thought we'd learn about while doing this stuff. Funny thing about these names.. they are not even that high a quality. 4 years ago you could have had them for $39.99 each (the price of a Snapback) if you bothered to put them in your list at all. Those were the days.

[Jack]

Frankly, this price is stunning to me. I honestly can't see the legit, underlying value at this number. How could you recoup your sizeable investment in this one? Lets assume, it brought 100 unique daily. Average click throughs would be 7% or so? Help educate me professor :)

***FS*** Names like this one can be implemented to bring much higher CTR because they are simply so compelling. There is little ambiguity as to what the surfer is looking for. Estimating is part art, part scinece.. but this name will probably get over 200 u. per day .. even at 200 its only 3.25/ u. Fairly cheap for traffic of this quality. Even on a poor implementation you'll draw 25% ctr (thats 50 clicks a day) ... crap. .. i should have gone higher. :( The buyer will pay for it in 2 yrs .

[Sahar Sarid]

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
"mobilefone.com" - 245
"mobilefone" - 221 (!)
If numbers without .com are lower then with then traffic is mainly ultra targeted to existing web sites, brands.

In this case "mobilefone" results shows the following:
---
221 mobilefone
49 mobilefone viet nam
35 mobilefone nam viet vnpt
---

Traffic, as you can see, is because one of Vietnam's major phone companies, Mobilefone.

http://www.2456.com/vnc07/eng/info/info4a.asp?eid=3667&order=138&enid=8247
Or
http://www.mobifone.com.vn/english/

As for traffic I would estimate around 70-100 uniques a day. Traffic is Vietnamese mostly which means some PPC companies would not give you revenue for (asian traffic).
In conclusion, I wouldn't pay 20K for it based on traffic alone. The value imho in this case is in mainly having a brandable and defensible name.

***FS*** Wow Sahar thanks for that. I would have thought the generic intent traffic in the name would drive it much higher than 70-100 u./day .. My family was here on island, I asked them "would you type the name like that".. answer: "Resounding yes". Then there's the fact that the vernacular is shifting to "mobile fone" from "cell phone". I didn't even consider that some visits could be Vietnamese, but that's an excellent point... When I googled the phrase, there were lots of folks globally calling them 'mobile fones' .. Vietnam didn't stick out like a sore thumb for me on GOOG.. but I didn't check the Overture rank like that, so I agree with you. I guess only this name's new owner is the only one who knows for sure what it really gets. This name reminds me of when stockz.com dropped last month and sold at $20k. You wouldn't value that name based on the fact the 's' is next to the 'z' on your keyboard.. It's just a very potent very brandable term.. Anyway.. thanks for the comment. Very good one :)

[coconut]

I would take it a step further and suggest that the references in some overseas media reports to Vietnam's phone company Mobilefone, should actually have said Mobifone.

Thus mobilefone.com is actually a typo of mobifone.com, which in turn is a typo of mobifone.com.vn (mobifone.com is a smart blind, in more ways than one).

465 mobifone.com
31 mobifone.com vn

2490 mobifone
209 mobifone com.vn
83 mobifone portal
69 funring mobifone
64 vms mobifone
59 mobifone vn
53 mobifone nam viet vn
49 mobifone viet nam

***FS*** Oy the confusion. But in the final analysis, you see the power of the name and its burn-down value as a brandable variant.. Everybody plays off the generic whether they spell phone with an "F" or whether they leave off the "E" .. a mobilephone is a mobilefone is a mobilphone is a mobilfone so long as it's used to sell that thing which it describes, depending on the country you are in and related senior mark holders.