The results of a study of the level of penetration of Cyrillic domains and email addresses conducted by the TLD .RU/.РФ Coordination Center and ROCIT (Russian Non-Profit Center for Internet Technologies) have been published on the Coordination Center website https://cctld.ru/upload/iblock/2a9/Report%20on%20IDN%20and%20EAI%20usage_2020.pdf. The study was based on an online survey that took place on July 13-20, 2020, on the RUNET-ID platform comprising about 200,000 registered IT, media and business professionals. As many as 724 people from various regions of Russia were canvassed.
According to the research, Cyrillic domain names are now used by about 21percent of respondents, and Cyrillic email addresses, by about 6 percent. At the same time, every fifth user noted it is easier and more convenient for them to memorize and type domain names and email addresses in Cyrillic, and 35percent said they would like to use Cyrillic emails.
Interestingly, the Moscow and Sverdlovsk regions are two areas where every second user said they would prefer using Cyrillic emails. Across the country, the greatest need to use Cyrillic was found among users under 18 (60 percent), as well as in the 45-59 and 60-plus age groups (40.6 percent and 48.4 percent, respectively).
Russian is the preferable language for survey participants to use on the internet as most of the respondents said they write, read and communicate in the Russian language online; 48.5 percent only use Russian while 43.8 percent use both Russian and English, but mainly Russian.
