RU-CENTER celebrated its 10th anniversary with a Domain Fair

The event opened with a press conference, which discussed current issues related to the development of the Russian domain registration market and included a presentation of the new industry magazine, "Domain Names."

"As the first and leading Russian domain registrar, RU-CENTER sets the tone in the domestic domain name registration market. Every year, on the eve of the company's anniversary, we hold an industry conference, which this year, in honor of RU-CENTER's anniversary, was supplemented by a "Domain Fair"—an exhibition showcasing the most popular national and international top-level domains in Russia. Such events allow the professional community to explore and discuss current industry issues," said Alexey Lesnikov, CEO of RU-CENTER.

Mark Tverdynin, Chairman of the Board of ROCIT, noted that 10 years is truly a long time for Russian businesses. "RU-CENTER is a good example for other registrars of how to conduct business, and the experience gained over these years will allow us to operate successfully when registering in the .РФ domain," he emphasized.

"In March 2009, the .RU zone surpassed 2 million domain names. On January 1, 2010, there were more than 2.5 million domains in the zone, and today there are already 2.7 million. The .RU domain is not only one of the largest national domains, but also the fastest-growing. This is despite the fact that the growth rate of the .RU zone in 2009 fell to 37%, which is the lowest growth rate in the history of the national domain. It could have been even lower if not for squatters and search engine optimization. Compared to other domain zones, .RU's double-digit growth rates continue to be the most significant in the world," said Pavel Khramtsov, Head of Analytics at RU-CENTER.

Alexey Platonov, Director of RosNIIROS, who pioneered the creation of the .RU domain and subsequently the RU-CENTER company, expressed confidence that the .RU domain will maintain its growth momentum in the coming years. Specific figures will depend on how quickly the internet continues to penetrate the regions. The overall state of the Russian economy will also influence the further development of the .RU domain.

Andrey Kolesnikov, Director of the Coordination Center for the National Internet Domain, congratulated RU-CENTER on its anniversary and outlined the Coordination Center's plans to extend the priority registration period for .РФ domains. He also announced that the .РФ domain will begin operating physically no later than June 2010.

The main part of the conference featured speeches from leading industry experts: Tobias Vonn, Director of Domain Registration in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at VeriSign (USA), Natasha Djukanovic, Sales Director at doMEn (Montenegro), Felix Gimenez, Sales Manager at VeriSign, Nadezhda Morozova, Public Relations Director at Telnic (UK), and others.

"The innovative .TEL domain, which began open registration exactly one year ago, has already registered nearly 300,000 domain names. This is the first domain for communication, allowing you to quickly add any contact information to your page. Moreover, all information is stored in the domain name system; hosting for such pages is not required. When changing your phone number or going on a business trip, you don't need to inform everyone about the change; just update the page, and all your friends and clients will know," noted Nadezhda Morozova, introducing the .TEL domain.

Overall, the event had a festive and businesslike atmosphere: discussions of topics covered in the presentations, including the development of the domain industry, new ICANN initiatives, and RU-CENTER services, continued in an informal setting. The evening concluded with an awards ceremony for RU-CENTER's most successful partners for 2009. Those unable to attend the conference in person were able to watch the proceedings live on Seo Pult TV, the conference's video partner.

RU-CENTER is a leading Russian Internet company offering a full range of domain name registration and Internet addressing services, as well as one of the largest hosting providers in Russia.