Liu.com Domain name Sells for $155,688 on NameJet

The domain name Liu.com just sold for $155,688 via NameJet. Liu.com received 520 bids and had 377 bidders.From the reserve price, the auction was only between two bidders.

Liang.com was sold sold via Namejet yesterday for $45,00. Both Liu.com and Liang.com were FindYourDomain.com owned domain names.Last week, we were telling you about other three domain names sold at NameJet : Liao.com at $100,000, Xiao.com at $67,566 and Daum.com at $50,000.

Congratulations to both the seller and the buyer.

Afnic Partners with the Internet Governance Forum – France

Afnic, the company behind .FR domain, announced today that it has partnered with the Internet Governance Forum France (IGF). The meeting will be held on March 10,2014.

You can read the press release after the jump:

“Various key players in the French digital economy have launched the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) France. Afnic invites every French stakeholder to take

Open to all, the first Internet Governance Forum in France will be held on March 10, 2014 in the premises of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE).

In order to better understand the national and international issues related to the digital economy, the forum will combine plenary sessions and interactive workshops. We invite all of the stakeholders involved in the French Internet (users, the private sector, academia, government authorities, etc.) to actively take part in preparing the event by visiting http://forum.fgi2014.fr and proposing the topics they would like to see addressed.

This joint development of the agenda for the forum is one of the hallmarks of the all-inclusive, multi-stakeholder nature of the IGF concept, a feature to which AFNIC is particularly attached.”

Check out EuroDNS here to register your .FR domain name.

Rightside Announces CFO and Marketing Head to Join Leadership Team Executive Appointments to Help Establish Leadership Position in Historic New gTLD Launches

[news release] Rightside, the domain name services division of Demand Media, today (13 January) is pleased to announce the recent appointments of Tracy Knox as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Kelly Johnson as Senior Vice President of Marketing. Both will join the team in Kirkland, Washington, and serve to further strengthen the company’s position as the world’s largest wholesale domain name registrar and expansion into its new domain name registry services.

“We are excited to welcome Tracy and Kelly to the Rightside team. They will play important roles in helping to accelerate company growth and build brand awareness,” said Taryn Naidu, who will become Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rightside when the spinoff is completed. “Each brings a wealth of experience, innovative thinking and strong leadership skills that will prove invaluable at a time when we are bringing to market our first new gTLD extensions. They will round out the seasoned executive team in place today and be an integral part of our success as we help usher in this new era of the Internet.”

In her new role as CFO, Tracy Knox will lead the company’s financial operations including accounting and financial reporting, treasury and investor relations. Knox brings nearly 20 years of extensive experience in global finance across diverse industries including software development and ecommerce. Most recently, Knox was CFO for private equity-backed A Place for Mom, Inc., overseeing the company’s operating and capital plans, and directing all finance, accounting, human resources and training activities. During her career, Knox served as the CFO of Drugstore.com, leading the financial operations, business development and investor relations divisions of the company, as well as overseeing the company’s sale to Walgreen Co. in 2011. Prior to joining Drugstore.com, Knox worked for Western Wireless International as the Director of International Accounting where she managed the company’s global financial operations.

Kelly Johnson will oversee all marketing and strategic branding efforts for the Rightside brand, as well as lead the marketing and communications teams across the company’s portfolio of brands. Throughout her career, Johnson has led teams in the technology industry to drive brand innovation and product positioning. For the past ten years, Johnson was the owner and principal consultant of VELA trio, LLC. Johnson’s approach to strategic marketing development for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer products and services facilitated her company’s overall growth. Johnson also spent 13 years working for Microsoft Corporation in both product management and business development roles where she honed her brand building and management talents.

About Rightside

Rightside inspires and delivers new possibilities for consumers and businesses to define and present themselves online. The company will be a leading provider of domain name services, offering one of the industry’s most comprehensive platforms for the discovery, registration, development, and monetization of domain names. This will include 15 million names under management, the most widely used domain name reseller platform, more than 20,000 distribution partners, an award-winning retail registrar, the leading domain name auction service and an interest in more than 100 new Top Level Domain applications. Rightside will be home to some of the most admired brands in the industry, including eNom, Name.com, United TLD and NameJet (in partnership with Web.com). Headquartered in Kirkland, WA, Rightside will have offices in North America and Europe. For more information please visit www.rightside.co.

About Demand Media

Demand Media, Inc. is a leading digital media and domain services company that informs and entertains one of the internet’s largest audiences, helps advertisers find innovative ways to engage with their customers and enables publishers, individuals and businesses to expand their online presence. Headquartered in Santa Monica, CA, Demand Media has offices in North America, South America and Europe. For more information about Demand Media, please visit http://www.demandmedia.com/

This news release was sourced from here.

Demand Media Announces Separation of Domain Services Business

Demand Media has filed documents to spin off its newly formed Rightside subsidiary as an independent publicly traded company.

According to the news release, republished in full below, “the new company will own and operate an ICANN-accredited registry (United TLD) and ICANN-accredited registrars providing services to wholesale customers through eNom and to retail customers through Name.com. It will also offer extensive aftermarket services for premium domain names, including domain name auction services through its NameJet joint venture.”

Demand Media Announces Filing of Form 10 Registration Statement for Planned Separation of Domain Name Services Business [news release]
Demand Media, Inc., a leading media and domain name services company, today (13 January) announced that its newly formed wholly owned subsidiary, Rightside Group, Ltd. (“Rightside”), has filed a Form 10 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the planned spin-off of Rightside as an independent publicly traded company. The filing marks an important step reached on Rightside’s path to becoming an independent company that will be one of the world’s largest pure-play, end-to-end domain name services providers.

“The Form 10 filing marks another key milestone for the planned separation and spin-off in 2014, as we have steadily been making progress in establishing Rightside as a leading player in the domain name services industry,” said Shawn Colo, Demand Media’s Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, who will also be a Director of Rightside following the separation.

In order to capitalize on the historic launch of new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) under the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) program, Demand Media has made significant investments in its domain name services business, including securing interests in registry operator agreements or applications for more than 100 new gTLDs. The new gTLDs create a new and better way to organize the Internet, greatly expand the inventory of domain name suffixes containing descriptive web addresses, and open new business opportunities for international adoption of native language web addresses.

These investments further strengthen Rightside’s existing business, with approximately 15 million domain names under management and a network of more than 20,000 active resellers and more than 225,000 retail customers. The new company will own and operate an ICANN-accredited registry (United TLD) and ICANN-accredited registrars providing services to wholesale customers through eNom and to retail customers through Name.com. It will also offer extensive aftermarket services for premium domain names, including domain name auction services through its NameJet joint venture.

“We are the world’s largest wholesale Internet domain name registrar and with our newly launched registry, we believe that we will become the exclusive operator of one of the largest portfolios of new gTLDs in the industry. Our ability to provide a comprehensive platform for the discovery, registration, development, and monetization of domain names will enable us to fulfill Rightside’s mission to advance the way businesses and consumers define and present themselves online,” added Taryn Naidu, Demand Media’s Executive Vice President, Domain Name Services.

Demand Media previously announced that Taryn Naidu, who has led Demand Media’s domain name services business since 2011, will become Chief Executive Officer of Rightside, upon completion of the separation. Additionally, Rightside executive management will include Tracy Knox as Chief Financial Officer, Wayne MacLaurin as Chief Technology Officer and Rick Danis as General Counsel. Dave Panos, who previously served as Demand Media’s Executive Vice President, Emerging Markets and is currently a consultant to Demand Media, will be appointed as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rightside.

About Rightside

Rightside plans to inspire and deliver new possibilities for consumers and businesses to define and present themselves online. The company will be a leading provider of domain name services, offering one of the industry’s most comprehensive platforms for the discovery, registration, development, and monetization of domain names. This will include 15 million names under management, the most widely used domain name reseller platform, more than 20,000 distribution partners, an award-winning retail registrar, the leading domain name auction service through its NameJet joint venture and an interest in more than 100 new Top Level Domain registry operator agreements or applications. Rightside will be home to some of the most admired brands in the industry, including eNom, Name.com, United TLD and NameJet (in partnership with Web.com). Headquartered in Kirkland, WA, Rightside will have offices in North America, Europe and Australia. For more information please visit www.rightside.co.

About Demand Media

The above news release was sourced from here.

Chinese Domain Name Sales Taking Off

According to a posting on the NiceNic blog, the hottest topic at a recent Chinese domain name fair was the public auction of tens of thousands of domains for .cn and the IDN for .china (in Chinese). The names had previously been reserved by the Chinese registry CNNIC.