Morning folks!!
Just say .mobi and domainers take to their battle stations. The emotions stirred up by .mobi is not normal....BUT last night I may have figured it out. It started with the folks in a certain part of the business who felt threatened by .mobi. They think it is their time in the sun and out of nowhere comes .mobi. The .mobi names sell for high prices while their investments sit and languish. Their reaction is normal and predictable.
Now since there are several hundred extensions and only a handful are meaningful.....what is the natural reaction? They hate the new kid on the block because the extension they are invested in may not be doing as well unless it is dotcom or one of the country codes that do well. A few other extensions are showing signs of life. But if I list them there will be a debate inside the debate and this debate is going somewhere else.
So how many extensions? How many years? Compare the selling prices on .mobi to all those extensions and you see why the anger is so close to the surface. How can it take off so fast while other extensions have done nothing?
For the .mobi haters, .mobi won't make the other extensions more or less valuable. What it WILL do is suck the $$$ and the oxygen out of the investment side of those extensions and THAT is exactly what is happening and it would be natural for that to piss them off.
Point is, sometimes it is not important to know why something does well. If there is a market.....there is a market. It is created by US. If it had no validity there would be no market because there would be no interest. No dollars exchanged. How many extensions are people invested in and they are just not getting the return and there is no interest? They can't afford the renewals and that in itself makes one angry and bitter.
In every post I have made about .mobi I say both sides are full of shit because neither side understands the reality. Neither side has looked at things other than one way. Neither side probably embraces my reasoning above. So like I said, both sides are full of shit. (I mean that in a friendly way).
What is not full of shit is that .mobis are selling at higher prices and rising in value faster than about any other extension but .com. At the auction, ALL .mobis not only sold, they had THE most active bdding. When other domains were not selling the chants were for more .mobis because they are fun auctions to watch.
If you are allergic to .mobi let me tell you how silly it is as a businessman. If you sell black shoes and black shoes sell well because they are the primary color, don't think you are a prisoner to black. One day the BROWN shoe comes out. It will never sell scream all the black shoe salesman. Meanwhile the brown shows are selling very well and the profit margins are pretty good. But you are a BLACK shoe salesman. That BROWN shoe is for idiots that know nothing about fashion!! Meanwhile folks are making money selling the BROWN shoes for whatever reason and they are taking some of the market from the black shoe guys. (And frankly who cares their reason because the reality trumps everything else)
Nobody is forcing the BLACK shoe salesman to sell BROWN shoes. The brown shoes may not even sell so why worry? But the BLACK shoe salesman has had a knee jerk reaction to BROWN shoes without looking at the other side. The BROWN show salesman are not any smarter. They just do the same thing in reverse. Many are juyst looking for the second coming of dotcom. That won't happen either. It adds up to a big fat missed opportunity by BOTH sides.
So either we are all here to make money or we are not. The money you make on BLACK shoes spend the exact same way as the money spent on BROWN shoes. Turning a blind eye to either might cost you money down the road. Sell both and I am quite sure you will do well.
I bought a portfolio of 125 nnn.mobi names earlier this year. Was it because I am a .mobi believer?? HELL NO!! I am a believer that I bought these domains at the right price and I can sell them for much more than I invested IF that is what I choose to do.
Point is the whole .mobi debate is just silly and it has to do with more than a new extension. That new extension is sucking up the dollars that may go to other "Off Broadway" extensions. It is hurting those markets and it is hurting them in a significant manner. THAT is one of the BIG reasons that the tone of this debate is where it is. Those arguing may not even have a vested interest....but they have fallen into the TRAP of those that do.
Have a GREAT day!
Rick Schwartz
UPDATE!!!!!
The words that have set off a firestorm:
Jay Westerdal writes: "When I look at the bidding on Shopping.mobi I see that the winner was bidder #338 Rick Schwartz. Rick bought Flowers.mobi for $200,000 earlier this year and set the high water mark for a DotMobi name. Surely Shopping is better then Flowers, so what “other financial obligations” would allow Rick to back out of the successful winning and binding bid?
This just looks bad. We need Transparency in this industry."
Now the questions:
Did you bid and win shopping.mobi yes or no?
Did you then back out of the purchase, yes or no?
It is important to clear the air. Jay's blog has raised very damaging accusations to say the least. If you want to make such bold statements on " why " there is a mobi market it is crucial to not look as though you are fixing it!
Rick Schwartz Responds....Even tho the above question was poised by some anonymous poster it is a good question and needs to be answered. I did not win shopping.mobi so the answer is NO and Jay must have made it up becuause it is an outright LIE on HIS part and I expect an apology and a retraction. A BIG apology and LONG retraction explaining this incident considering he circulated to 10,000 of my peers and now showing up on the industry boards. I hope folks on those board will post a link so the record can be set straight.
I did not win shopping.mobi so there was nothing to back out of,. This is very damaging to me and Jay should know better than to LIE. People should now begin to question HIS motives. I expect YOU and others to go back and have Jay explain his made up tales. Then you should ask other questions of why he was motivated to do this without verifying with ME? If you have ANY backbone you will.
Jay spread this lie to 10,000 industry professionals accusing me of
backing out of a deal and casting shadows on Me, Moniker and the
TRAFFIC Conferences. It was done with the worst of motives and fair minded people will see that. He was able
to email me TWICE the day before asking for access to my private forum, but
when I told him no and the reason, Jay did not have enough CLASS to
email me and ask me directly about this. Instead he CHOSE to drag my
good name, Moniker and TRAFFIC thru the mud with info that was not factual and done by a person that has a motive to hurt his competition. A motive to hurt Moniker. A motive to hurt TRAFFIC. A motive to hurt Rick Schwartz. The post by Jay yesterday that I learned about shortly after I made this initial post this morning is an outright LIE and is not factual. Backing out of a deal is one of the worst violations anyone in this community can make. Even when the TRUTH comes out and Jay is forced to apologize, there will always be those that will keep spreading the lie. So how do I EVER fix that? THANKS JAY!
In Summary:
A. I did NOT buy shopping.mobi so Jay should first learn to be factual or stop lying. However I did bid on it and then dropped out.
B. Comparing a bid on one domain compared to a bid on another domain
in another auction a YEAR apart does not take into account someone's
circumstance or bank account or commitments or MY personal valuation. So this is just a STUPID comment from a so-called
"Businessman."
C. Jay is bitter that I will not grant him access to my private board on Friday. I said
"It was a little too close to home." Instead of understanding he
complained how it was not fair. etc. etc. etc. So instead of emailing me to validate his info, he saw a chance for a sucker punch and he took it!
D. I have invited Jay to TRAFFIC even tho it is not in my best
interest and he attends. I invited him to be on a panel even tho it is not in my best
interest and put him on "Meet the bloggers". In return this is what we get!!?? A post done only to hurt the premiere show and auction in our space and cast false shadows that hurts everyone and every business whether you realize it or not. We are all on the same boat and those that drill holes in the bottom to try and sink their competition are being foolish and selfish at best and something I can't say publicly at worst.
E. Finally, Jay wants to hijack the subject of "Transparency" the subject that TRAFFIC announced it will focus on in our Las Vegas show in February. Fine, let's start with Jay. With his way of doing business and selling private info about others.....He certainly proved he does not have the credentials to lead the way into a transparent business.
Rick Schwartz
Further Update.
Monte from Moniker posted some of the email but I would now like to show 2 quotes that should show the intent of Jay:
"Rick,
If you didn't buy it. Who did? I would be glad to print a
retraction if I am wrong. However I am using my notes and that is what they
say."
And the clincher......
One more TELLING quote from Jay's email:
"Trust me, I would have preferred to ask about it on your board first and do some investigating there.... oh wait. If you don't want me there that is totally up to you."
So Jay could email me but THIS was payback for not allowing him in my private forum. Jay has a lot of answering to do and I am sure most will be BULLSHIT! Jay you screwed up BAD in front of EVERYONE in the industry. I don't even know how to tell you to fix it. The damage has been done. Just don't want to hear lame and silly excuses for trying to ruin my good name. Ruin the name of TRAFFIC. Ruin the name of Monte and Moniker. I think people are going to think deep today. Maybe I am an easy target because some don't like me. But when they put themselves in MY SHOES and have THOSE FEELINGS go thru them, they may even give me a fair hearing.
Latest Update........
Jay posts a "Luke warm apology on this site. Normally I would post a link. I don't want to do anything to circulate the lies Jay told today anymore than they already are. So This is the part as it relates to the sale that accused me of welshing on. He BURIED the link from his original post under comment #24. If he had ANY CLASS he would have put it on top, in red, so nobody would miss it. But like I said, that is just one of the things that makes it a lukewarm apology. So this at least begins to clear the record and states I did NOT buy shopping.mobi So I am going to do what I can to fix the mess that Jay created. He could give a shit about cleaning it up or he would be on every board and he would not be blaming HIS STAFF for HIS LIES!! THAT is the most telling. Blame his staff for HIS CRAP!???? That's a real MAN! Blame his staff!!! Good one Jay!
Jay writes: "My staff notes also reflected inaccurately that Rick Schwartz was the winning bidder of Shopping.Mobi. He in fact was not the last bidder, the audio recording clearly shows it was bidder #161 on the phone (the Sri Lanka Investment group). I want to apologize to Rick publicly for making such a big mistake. I should have done more due diligence rather then relying exclusively on my notes. I will try and do a more through job reporting facts in the future."
Jay, I don't believe a word out of your mouth any longer. yesterday/today you said you reviewed the video and it was your notes. Now you blame your staff. Thanks for setting the record straight after you dragged my name thru the mud for the last 2 days. You know that won't erase the damage you have done. Now you just drag your own staff thru the mud. What next? You have NO CLASS!
Transparency is finally here. What you did is transparent to the entire industry. You tried to inflict damage on Moniker, Monte, TRAFFIC and me. The only thing you did was stain the entire industry for your personal gain. A mistake is forgivable. Your statements prove it was your intent to do us harm no matter what the cost to the industry and are just the back peddling now because you have no choice. At the end of the day, you harmed yourself and your event worse than anything else you could have ever done. The saddest part, I doubt you will change your ways. Others may give you the benefit of the doubt as time goes on and they forget. But Howard, Monte and I and our staff's know how many other things you have done that we NEVER complained about publicly. This time you got caught! Jay, you are a very smart guy. Time to use that energy to stop abusing things for your personal gain. Stop messing with people's privacy. Stop the things you do that everyone knows you do but would never say out loud. I have been told at times some things you do to invade people's privacy that make me cringe. YOU now have a MOTIVE to DIG into my stuff and others. STOP IT before you get any deeper! People in this industry want their PRIVACY and it is not up to YOU to distribute it and make a profit. The domain community is ANGRY at what you are doing.
