Visa Announces Investment in dotMobi
Visa today announced a strategic investment in dotMobi. This investment adds Visa to a consortium of 13 leading mobile operators, device manufacturers and Internet content providers.
Visa brings to dotMobi extensive mobile commerce and payment capabilities, including solutions for contactless mobile payment, Over the Air (OTA) personalization, coupons and direct marketing.
“Visa’s strategic alliance with dotMobi puts us at the forefront of working with mobile operators and technology providers to develop practical and achievable best practices for the delivery of enhanced mobile commerce services,” said Patrick Gauthier, senior vice president of Visa International.
“This alliance, coupled with our recently launched Visa mobile platform, positions Visa to advance the adoption of mobile services that provide convenience to consumers and value for those within the delivery chain.”
Last year, Visa had registered several .mobi domains, including:
- Visa.mobi (June 12, 2006)
- Electron.mobi (June 12, 2006)
- ePay.mobi (June 12, 2006)
- PayMe.mobi (September 26, 2006)
- Plus.mobi (June 12, 2006)
- Prox.mobi (September 26, 2006)
- Proximity.mobi (September 26, 2006)
- vPay.mobi (June 12, 2006)
Not all these domains were registered during the Trademark Sunrise, which indicates that they weren't registered just to protect a trademark or company name. However, there isn't any content on the domains yet.
Neil Edwards, CEO of dotMobi, said, “We’re absolutely delighted to welcome Visa on board as our fourteenth investor. As always, our goal is simply to make the Internet mobile. The addition of Visa to our company and to our board is the next step in making that a reality.”
Read Visa's press release here. Thanks to Dotmobiz.com
I don't get .mobi… It isn't exclusive and it sounds kind of dumb. I can see how this is helpful to a company like visa, but I wouldn't want to build a business model on it with a new site.
Piedmont: Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Ericsson, Vodafone, T-Mobile, Telefónica Móviles, Telecom Italia Mobile, Orascom Telecom, GSM Association, Hutchison Whampoa, Syniverse Technologies, and VISA get it, so it really doesn't matter if you, personally, don't get it. They do and each of them, individually, has the power to make everyone else "get it", so imagine their collective power. If you don't get it now, wait 3 years.