nginx server_name directive not working

I want to use NGINX as a proxy server for my application. My application (say 'abc') is running on port 8000 on my machine. And NGINX is running on the same machine. A part of the conifguration looks like:

server { listen 80; server_name my.example.net; location / { proxy_pass http://localhost:8000/abc; } }

The configuration file when used allows me to test my app by using localhost in the address bar. However, http://my.example.net does not work. My app does not load. I get an error that the page could not be found. Any idea what could be wrong? Or am I not correctly understanding or using nginx?

Thanks