This past summer, the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ invited internet users to take part in a series of surveys on various aspects of the center’s activities, as well as the development and operation of ccTLDs .RU and .РФ. The surveyors conducted three polls and processed a total of 1,000 responses.
The June poll, Domains vs. Social Media: What’s better?, canvassed 694 people, 72.2% of them employees or business owners; 18.6% referred to themselves as self-employed experts, while 9.2% were not actively involved on the labor market at the time. Interestingly, their responses completely refuted the widespread belief that most users now prefer using social media over developing their own websites with unique domain names. The overwhelming majority of users (90%) have their own websites, and slightly less than half of respondents have a website and social media accounts at the same time.
The second survey, in July, was on Domain Referencing and included 301 users. The results confirmed the widespread opinion that the .RU zone is the most preferable for Russian users for creating and visiting various sites; an .RU domain is especially important for resources that provide state and municipal services, as well as resources related to the provision of banking, financial, and insurance services. Users tend to be less demanding about the domain name if the resource is not associated with any vital area (such as e-book aggregators or entertainment resources). When owners register a domain name, their choice of a TLD is influenced by a combination of factors, the most significant of them being the availability of a suitable domain name, conformity with the planned resource content and affordability.
In August, 236 people participated in the How to Choose a Domain Name survey. As many as 89.4% of respondents said they or their company owned a domain name; another 10.6% said they were not directly or indirectly involved in the domain name registration process at the moment and skipped the subsequent questions. It followed from the responses that the main factors influencing user choice of a service provider are its reliability, guaranteed personal data security and prompt response to their questions or problems. Most users described the registration process as generally uncomplicated; they said they did not require any help or additional information.
More details on the surveys can be found on the Coordination Center website.
