TLD Registry the company behind the new gTLD for the Chinese IDN for Online (.在线) as well as the registry for the new gTLD (中文网) (Dot Chinese Website) will be holding a live auction in Macau starting at 11 a.m. Friday local Macau Time (03:00 UTC) March 21, 2014 (Thursday March 20th at 11pm EST), and Sedo.com will be taking online bids for those that cannot be in attendance.

As far as I know this is only the second time that Sedo is allowing for online bidding from a live auction event, the first time was for the auction for a single domain name e.co.

You will have to request certification, in advance in bid in this auction to email Sedo

Please send an email to  MacauAuction@sedo.com with your login name and copy info@rightofthedot.com on the email and we will make sure the Registry gets your request.

The certification deadline to participate in this auction is March 20th, at 16.00

If you haven’t noticed most of this years top domain name sales have come out of China in both .com and .Cn domain names.

.在线 (Dot Chinese Online) according to the registry is the perfect TLD for Chinese products and services,  such as “hotels.online” or “shoes.online”.

This auction will feature 39 lots of domain names.

Each lot will contain multiple domain names, some grouped around a theme and some that mean the same thing in Pinyin.

Here is some more information on this auction from Sedo.

I will have more about the auction tomorrow, but in the meantime if you have interest you better get registered:

“”The auctions will have a live component with bidders attending a live auction event in Macau in addition to online bidders. All bids will be placed in the Sedo Auction Platform and will be visible to everyone participating.

Auctions start with Lot #1 at 11 a.m. local Macau Time (03:00 UTC) on March 21, 2014.

Each Auction Lot will be approximately 5 minutes total, with 1 minute extensions if there is last minute bidding.

As soon as one Auction Lot closes, the next Auction Lot will be set up and start.

CERTIFICATION:

To participate in this auction, you will need a verified Sedo account with Macau Auction certification. Please follow these easy steps to get set up:

1. 1)  You will need to have a verified Sedo account. If you do not have one, please set one up and verify it.
3. 2)  Email your Sedo Login Name to MacauAuction@Sedo.com for certification
6. 3)  Our Sedo auction team will contact you to assist in certifying your account.
8. 4)  Once certified, you will be approved and set up to bid in the auction lot(s) of your choice.
10. 5)  The certification deadline to participate in this auction is March 20th at 16.00 UTC. Any certification requests after this date cannot be guaranteed.
12. 6)  Follow us on Twitter or Weibo (details below in “communication” section) to access the auction page links as they go live. Auction Lots run every five minutes.

AUCTION RULES:

1. 1)  Certified bidders can bid in any auction lot(s) of interest.
2. 2)  The minimum or starting bid on all Auction lots will be set at $2,000.
3. 3)  All auction lots will be shown on screen as a single domain. However, you will be bidding on a ‘lot’ of domains. Details on each auction lot are included in this bidder package.
4. 4)  Auction will be presented with one auction lot at a time. There will be approximately 5-8 minutes between each auction start time. For example, Lot #1 will begin at 11:00 a.m., Lot #2 at 11:10 a.m. and so on.
5. 5)  If there are any bids placed within the last minute of the auction, the auction will automatically be extended for 1 minute. This automatic extension will continue until there are no additional bids in the extension time. This is to allow all online bidders to respond with higher bids and prevent last minute sniping.
6. 6)  Bidders shown as “bidder 1” and “bidder 2” represent in room bids at the Macau Event while all online bids will be shown as bidder 3, 4, 5, etc. depending on number of bidders.

IMPORTANT! Auction times are estimated. Please follow us on Twitter (@MacauAuction) for live auction links and times. Since each auction could be as short as 5 minutes, we suggest you follow the event closely so you do not miss bidding on the domain lot of your choice.

We will post the auction lot #, auction page link and announce its start in real time. This