On 25 November 2011, the 17th all-Russia forum of hosting providers (“Hostobzor”) was opened in Roschino, near St Petersburg.
Held twice a year, in the spring and in the autumn, the event traditionally gathers leading players of the Russian domain industry. This year’s event was attended by 60-plus representatives of hosting providers and registrars, as well as representatives of the Coordination Center and the Technical Center of Internet.
The event served as a platform for many discussions which touched the most topical themes of the Russian domain market – specifically, within the panel “Domain Market: Autumn 2011”. The discussion was attended by representatives of the domain market: Marina Nikerova, the CC’s Council Chairperson; Alexander Panov, RU-CENTER’s General Director and managing partner, Hosting Community; Alexey Skvotsov, Commercial Director, Hosting Community; Pavel Khramtsov, Director of Information policy department, RU-CENTER; and Sergey Kopylov and Dmitry Beliavsky of the Technical Center of Internet.
According to forum participants, the new gTLD project remains one of the most pressing issues. For instance, Marina Nikerova elaborated on acceptance of application for new domains articulating that any organization may submit an application from 12 January through 12 April 2012: “The procedure of drafting and submitting an application is very complicated. For example, the respective requirements tonational top-level domains are much simpler, - stresses M. Nikerova. – It is highly unlikely to comply with the application process and submit all required information without having experience in the domain industry.” Pavel Khramtsov delivered intriguing statistics regarding the pay-off period of domain zones: the expert noted that in order to recoup registration and maintenance costs of a top-level domain this domain should have some 150,000 or more registered domain names.
Interestingly, Russia will also participate in the new gTLD project: for example, the forum participants discussed filing of an application for domains . moscow and .москва, .skolkovo, and .дети. Marina Nikerova briefed on the draft registration procedures in the projected domain .дети: according to the CC’s Council Chairperson, registration in the domain will be open almost for all comers.
