Starting on November 11 foreigners are allowed to register domain names in the Cyrillic .РФ zone. New Terms and Conditions of domain names registration under Domain .РФ and .RU, that came into force on that date, remove the restrictions that were set for registration by the foreign citizens and organizations for the first year of open registration in the .RF (.РФ) zone.

Russia became the first country in the world to receive the right to create a Domain zone in the national language. The launch of the new Domain zone proved to be more than successful – the results are unique for the World Wide Web history. Within the first week of the open registration in Domain .РФ, that began on 11th November 2010, 500 000 domain names were registered. At the moment more than 900,000 Cyrillic domains are registered, 68 % of registered domains have been delegated and 25 % of sites are already working. 70 % of registered domains belong to individuals and 30 % to juristic person. The most popular domain names are common words, brands and trademarks, key search engine request, personal and proper names. Today Cyrillic Domain zone is 15th in TOP-20 of the leading national Domain zones of Europe.

Experts don’t expect a significant decline of interest during the second year of general registration in the .РФ zone. According to Alexey Korolyuk, member of Cyrillic ccTLD Implementation working group, chief executive of REG.RU Registrar, the number of renewals of domain names registered in the first year of open registration in the .РФ will be about 75–80 %. Internet-users are expected to renew nearly 90% of domain names, market professionals – 65-70%.

The poll, conducted by REG.RU among its clients, shows that the Internet-users find it much easier to work with the Domain zone that ‘speak’ their native language. The majority (62 %) recognizes advantages of Cyrillic domains over latin: domain names are euphonic, easy to remember and spell. Many users note that Cyrillic domains automatically remove the confusion between several possible transliteration spelling of the same word and make it much easier to find the necessary web-site. 23% of respondents need Cyrillic domains. РФ for personal use, 21% – for business. 20% have bought Cyrillic domains for the future and don’t use them at the moment. 10% registered the domain names to protect their brand from cybersquatters, 12% – for resale. For a small percentage of respondents Cyrillic Domain is a fashion trend or a good gift.
The clients who register domains for business note important advantage: there is no need to fight for a short name, they can take a longer name that describe precisely the company’s business since the Cyrillic name is easy to remember. Also the business-owners state their high efficiency in advertising and marketing campaign. Today the Cyrillic domains. .РФ can be often seen on banners, billboards, ads in newspapers, business cards and so on.

The market experts expect significant demand for Cyrillic domains from foreign citizens and organizations in the nearest future. Cyrillic domain name increases business potential of companies who operate on the Russian market due to the fact that most people take in the information in their native language better than in the foreign language. Many well-known foreign brands that have a representative office in Russia, have taken the opportunity to launch their sites in the National Domain zone, for example, тошиба.рф (Toshiba), макдоналдс.рф (McDonald’s), адидас.рф (Adidas), самсунг.рф (Samsung), бмв.рф (BMW) and so on.

For countries with high Internet activity Domain zone in the national language is an important step: it makes the Internet accessible to different audiences and the everyday use of the Internet easy and comfortable. More than 37 countries followed the example, including China, Iran, India, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Morocco, etc. Cyrillic top-level domains are introduced in Serbia (.СРБ ), Ukraine (. УКР) and Kazakhstan (. ҚAЗ).

In January 2010 the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved the delegation of Cyrillic Domain .RF (.РФ) to Russia.

In May 2010 web-sites in the .RF (.РФ) Domain zone started to operate. Governmental sites президент.RF (.РФ) and правительство.RF (.РФ) were the first to open in the Cyrillic zone, the commercial organizations have followed the example.

Since November 25, 2009 till 16 September, 2010 priority (sunrise) registration took place, Cyrillic domains were registered by governmental authorities, mass-media, trademark or service mark holders and non-governmental organization.

On November 11, 2010 the open registration in the Russian national Cyrillic Domain zone .RF (.РФ) started. More than 900,000 Cyrillic domains were registered at the moment.

Aaron Krawitz