There are 10,000 Cyrillic domains in .UA.
February 2011 brought a glorious gift to the Ukrainian internet: the total number of Cyrillic domains (IDN - Internationalized Domain Names) registered at com.ua and kiev.ua reached 10,000. The 10,000th name, ЖБИ.kiev.ua, was registered by Iname.ua for one of its clients.
The process of registering domain names containing national alphabet characters began in Ukraine on October 19, 2010. Even during the initial phase, when new names were provided to owners of Cyrillic word trademarks and well-known marks to prevent cybersquatting and phishing, it became clear that the service was gaining popularity. Today, with IDN registration available to everyone, this observation has been confirmed.
The use of IDNs significantly expands the range of possible names, making them easier to pronounce, type, and search, while reducing user errors. This innovation has already been appreciated by PR and advertising professionals, who now have an additional tool for promoting the names of companies, products, and projects.
Although registering domain names using national alphabets has both supporters and critics, the benefits of this option appear to be of interest to end users—registrants. And domain name registrars have their own ideas on the matter.
Andrey Khvetkevich, director of the company "Service Online" (registrar NIC.UA):
"The introduction of Cyrillic domains is undoubtedly the right and necessary step for the development of Ukraine's national domain. This event not only demonstrated the importance of developing the domain but also helped overcome a number of obstacles. Specifically, registrars and the .UA domain administrator have reached a new level of problem-solving, and now the development of the Ukrainian domain space will be more productive. The lessons learned are very important for the entire industry and will be applied in the future. Regarding the popularity of Cyrillic domains in the Latin .UA domain, this service is not yet particularly popular, as the share of Cyrillic domains in none of Ukraine's public domains has exceeded 5%. However, if Ukraine introduces a fully Cyrillic domain, such a service will become significantly more popular, if only because the trivial problem of switching keyboard layouts will be eliminated."
Petr Vlasenko, Commercial Director of Colocall (registrar DNS.COM.UA):
"I was pleasantly surprised by such a vigorous trend in IDN domain registrations. Why was it a surprise? I was previously sure that such a service could not be in mass demand. The Internet is, by definition, an international environment, and an attempt to introduce one's own "out-of-the-way" national addressing seemed nonsense. Apparently, the reason for my point of view is that my views were formed at a time when the Internet and other networks - its predecessors - were used primarily by English-literate people who were not bothered by either the Latin alphabet or transliteration rules; those who did not understand why Cyrillic was needed in addressing if the whole world uses the Latin alphabet. That is why, regarding IDNs, I like to draw an analogy between domains and phone numbers: imagine that numbers can also be addressed not with numbers, understandable to both an Arab and an Austrian, but with letters. Then exchange numbers with an Austrian. Or an Arab... And this was a pleasant surprise because I, like any other participant in the domain registration market, made a good profit from this. Thanks to all those users who paid real money for the ephemeral pleasure of addressing their website in a mixture of Cyrillic and Latin. In this sense, IDN domains have fulfilled their purpose—and continue to do so successfully.
To obtain a Cyrillic domain in Ukraine, please contact any registrar from the list below. Names are delegated in accordance with a detailed set of regulations. Thus, the internet is becoming increasingly populated with catchy, striking, and, most importantly, understandable domain names.
