On November 25, the .РФ domain turns one year old.
November 25th marks the one-year anniversary of the launch of registrations for the Cyrillic domain zone .РФ, Russia's new national domain. To mark this anniversary, Registrar REG.RU conducted a survey among its clients to find out why they register Cyrillic domains, what advantages they see in the new zone, and what forecasts they have for the domain's future development.
Survey respondents explained the reasons for registering .РФ domains. Forty-two percent purchased .РФ domains to create personal websites, 35% to achieve their company's business objectives (of which 3% did so to protect the domain from competitors/cybersquatters), 8% planned to resell the purchased domains, 4% registered domains as gifts, and 2% sensed a fashion trend and purchased a domain in a new zone. This proportion aligns with statistical data: 63% of all registered domains in the .РФ zone are owned by individuals, and 27% by legal entities.
The vast majority (73%) of respondents acknowledged the advantages of the .РФ domain over other national zones. Among the main advantages were noted ease of website typing (28%), memorability (16%), the ability to use Russian rather than Latin (13%), and new opportunities for promoting business on the Internet (11%).
When it comes to choosing a domain name, the most popular choices among respondents were domains that exactly matched the company/brand name, product and service names, first and last names, nicknames, and funny, memorable words. About 6% came up with a non-existent word.
One of the most discussed topics in recent days has been the stoplist for the .РФ domain, which contains obscene expressions, swear words, and jargon, which are prohibited for use in website names in the Cyrillic zone. Fifty-four percent of respondents agree that the registration of such words should be prohibited, 24% oppose the restrictions, and 20% find it unimportant.
It's noteworthy that 12% of respondents registered domain names for the future and have no current plans to use them. This trend is also evident in the overall statistics: 37% of all registered domains have been delegated, meaning they are ready for full operation. Looking at the oldest .РФ domains, registered a year ago, during the first days of priority registration, we see that of the 1,554 registered domains, 863 have been delegated—just over half.
Of course, companies, the government, media, and public organizations are primarily investing in developing their presence in the Cyrillic zone. But internet users have already appreciated the potential of the .РФ domain: since the first days of open registration, various personal mini-pages with Cyrillic (sometimes quite amusing) addresses have been popping up, hosting .д. domains using standard social media tools.
What are users' predictions for the development of the .РФ domain? Forty percent believe the .РФ domain will develop and coexist alongside .RU, 30% expect .РФ to become the primary domain of the RuNet, and 30% are unsure whether it will be actively used or match the popularity of .RU.
