Numeric Domains

WSJ's Numbers Guy Zeros in on Numeric Domains

Nice to see more traditional mainstream media beginning to report increasingly on the growing phenomenon that are numeric domains. In a December 5, 2008 piece, among other observations, Carl Bialik skimmed the surface on recent top numeric domain sales (as oft reported here and at DN Journal).

"Industry watchers say Web users should get used to visiting sites whose names are numeric...The increase in Web navigation from cellphones adds to the trend, because on a numeric keypad, it's easier to type out a two-digit domain than a long word".

Hmmph... whoda thunk?

And it's not just the online WSJ's Bialik that's publicly singing the virtues of these numeric gems. Sedo's COO, Jeremiah Johnston adds "Every region of the world, no matter the culture, has some kind of tie to numerology".

Even the sluggos over at prestigious Wharton, specifically one perfesser Eric T. Bradlow , weighs in with his Harvard backed PhD to opine... "I do think you will see a movement toward numerically named Web sites. They have this perception of technology and newness."

We couldn't agree more. Nudoms are invited to contact Mr. Bialik at his blog.

Emerging Markets Beating a Path on Mobile Browsers

Perhaps the most telling statement that the mobile web is coming of age is suggested in this snippet  about emerging markets from the December 5, 2008 Wall Street Journal.

"... Many people have turned instead to accessing the Internet with their mobile phone in the past year as falling costs, increased bandwidths and improvements in browser technology have made it quicker to surf from a cellphone. For many, browsing on a handheld device is a cheaper alternative to buying a PC or paying for home Internet service."

Many consumers want to use phones that cost around $100 to do tasks such as accessing email and social-networking sites. Consumers worldwide can easily access some of the most popular social networking sites using numeric domains. Simply enter the numeric domain equivalents of these sites into any mobile browser to access the respective mobile versions:

• Facebook - Enter 32232665.com
  

• MySpace - Enter 6977223.com
  

• Twitter - Enter 8948837.com
  

• Linked (In) - Enter 546533.com
  

Billions Becoming the Norm

Here's another milestone all NuDoms should be happy about. The vast majority of those over a billion cell phones sold (as noted below), are capable of accessing the Internet. As more mobile Web sites are developed, the take-up of numeric domains should also increase.

      San Francisco - With more than 1 billion phones sold globally for the first time, 2007 was a banner year for mobile phone sales. Worldwide sales of mobile phones ended up surpassing 1.15 billion units in 2007, a 16 percent increase from 2006 sales of 990.9 million, according to figures from Gartner.

Emerging markets, especially China and India, are now the driver for growth, with many people in the countries now buying their first phone.

Full story

Developing Nations - Picking Up the Mobile Pace

That venerable organization, UNCTAD, (who dat?, ed.) an offshoot of the UN claims that "Mobile phone users in developing nations now make up 58% of handset subscribers worldwide". And according to the ITU , mobile phone penetration rates are expected to reach 50 percent by early this year with the three billion subscription mark already passed some months ago.

Unsurprisingly, most of that growth is coming from emerging markets like Africa, which has come up with a growth rate of 50 percent in the last few years. The stars of the show, equally predictably, have been the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) adding one billion new users between them last year.

Undoubtedly, the vast majority of the mobile phones being purchased are NOT of the Smart phone and qwerty keyboard variety. They are of the standard key pad alpha-numeric configuration used on billions of cell phones world wide.

As our unofficial anecdotal learning curve suggests, many new cell phone users will type-in random numbers into their browsers to test the wireless internet waters. These meanderings eventually lead subscribers to properly formatted internet sites designed to deliver information and services. As their efforts improve access over time, they will come to realize that  inputting 42637.com leads to "games", 2428.com leads to "chat", 6397.com leads to "news", 32232665.com leads to Facebook etc. Companies delivering mobile content such as Worddial continue to see growing traffic from these developing countries.

This can only bode well for increased use of numeric domains.

More Fuel to the Fire - UK Mobile Internet Use Taking Off

The Guardian Unlimited  cites that more than 17 million people accessed the internet on a mobile phone in December.

In time, broadband mobile will be individuals' primary way of accessing the internet - and it will have a greater impact than even mobile voice has had."

All the signs are there. As mobile Internet access continues to increase steadily around the world, consumers will demand a "beyond expectations" experience. That starts with a simple, easy way to access the wireless Web.

Major players that are dictating the the  rules that define how we access the wireless Web need to pay much more attention to this aspect of the customer experience. You can have the greatest products and services, but if customers can't get to them, there's little chance of sustained success.

Convoluted sub-domains, (m.mycompany.com, wap.my services.com, mobile.my wallpaper.com) and the  wowitsa.mobi, (who dat ? ed.) will just not cut it. They're too long, take too much effort to input and are just plain NOT user friendly.

 

Vodafone slashes UK data costs

FT.com

Vodafone yesterday made an aggressive push to generate more revenue from mobile internet services by slashing prices in the UK, one of its core European markets.

The move came as Vodafone indicated it should generate £2bn of revenue from mobile data services in 2007-08, which would be an increase of about a 40 per cent on the previous year.

Vodafone is looking to offset falling revenue from mobile phone calls with rising sales from data services, such as web surfing on handsets.

Consumer adoption of mobiles offering internet access is rising significantly and increasing numbers of consumers and businesses are buying datacards that provide wireless internet access for laptops.

Arun Sarin, Vodafone's chief executive, said the UK move could be followed in other countries. "We are obviously trying to stimulate the market," he added.