Experts from the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ took part in APTLD78, the 78th meeting of the Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Association held in early September. The meeting was held online. During the session Marketing: ccTLD Registry as a Brand, representatives of country-code registries from Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, India, Belarus, Montenegro and Russia discussed modern strategies for building and promoting ccTLD brands, as well as opportunities, approaches and responsibilities of the registries.
The Coordination Center’s senior analyst, Maria Kolesnikova, pointed out that the advent of new gTLDs changed the domain sector, signaling the need to update marketing approaches and find new methods for promoting national domain zones. “A country-code registry has to know its customers and what they need when promoting domain registration services. Today, country-code domains are mostly viewed as a primary choice for online projects targeting the domestic market, even though there are other successful models as well,” Maria Kolesnikova said.
The participants in the session discussed how country-code domains could use marketing to better adapt to their target markets. All speakers noted that in most cases registries focus their marketing campaigns on improving brand recognition, while their content strategies are geared towards educational materials and explanations on domain registration and use, as well as advising customers on gaining and expanding their online presence and promotion.
Security was also high on the agenda of the session, with participants noting that part of the internet infrastructure is under the responsibility of country-code registries who need effective mechanisms for combating cybercrime and abuse and settling domain disputes.
