On October 14, the TASS Press Center hosted a news conference on the opening of applications for the 2020 Runet Prize, the national award for contribution to developing the Russian internet segment. The Runet Prize is the national high-tech and internet award as well as the oldest and most prestigious accolade in the Russian internet industry.
The news conference opened with video remarks by Head of the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Media Mikhail Seslavinsky, who noted how important the Runet Prize was for encouraging the development of the Russian digital industry and creating healthy competition.
“On behalf of the federal agency, I would like to note the importance of this prize for the internet industry. Despite this year’s unfortunate events, the internet industry took off. This year showed how important internet technologies and online services are for each of us. All across Russia, people moved their activity online and started using digital services, from video calls and remote education to online shopping and telemedicine. Runet users also consumed a lot of content in 2020. According to Mediascope WEB-Index, in April 2020 Russian users aged 12 and older spent 12 percent more time on the internet every day than in March. According to OZON, sales of subscriptions to games and online cinemas in the first quarter of 2020 grew 211 percent, and the total turnover of legal online video services, according to the Telecom Daily report, increased by 56 percent in the first six months of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019, and reached 18.64 billion rubles,” the agency head noted.
RAEC Director Sergei Plugotarenko presented the main categories of the Runet Prize. They remain the same as in the previous years and reflect the main areas of activity of internet companies and digital industry organizations: State & Society, Media & Mass Communications, Education & HR, Economy & Business, Health & Recreation, and Technology & Innovation.
ROCIT Director Sergei Grebennikov talked about the contest stages and ways to become an expert, as well as about the special categories, which change every year. They include categories for projects on domestic tourism, the game industry and cybersports, online shopping, children’s content and technology that proved useful during the coronavirus pandemic. “The spread of the novel virus and self-isolation could not but affect the list of our special categories: these events posed a great challenge and also gave a boost to many digital services and support projects for people. This is why we want to see initiatives that contributed to countering the pandemic among the contestants,” Sergei Grebennikov said.
This year, there will be several categories for organizations and services that made a significant contribution to promoting Cyrillic addresses and the Russian language on the internet. One of them, the category marking the 10th anniversary of the Cyrillic domain .РФ, was established by the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ.
“The prize, which will not only be presented on behalf of the Coordination Center but also on behalf of our project Поддерживаю.рф, will be awarded to projects that successfully use the Cyrillic alphabet for internet addresses and also promote Universal Acceptance of IDNs and EAI,” said Coordination Center Director Andrey Vorobyev. Moreover, at the Coordination Center’s proposal, the organizing committee has established a special category for contribution to the support and promotion of the Russian language on the internet. Winners in these categories will get a prize featuring the .РФ symbol rather than the usual figurine with the Runet symbol of .RU.
The Digital Lawyer 2020 second national award ceremony will also be part of the Runet Prize contest. The prize will be awarded to lawyers working with digital law. Organizations, projects and websites that made a significant contribution to developing the Russian internet segment in 2019 and 2020 are invited to enter the Runet Prize contest. Applications must be filled out online at www.premiaruneta.ru before November 13. The results announcement and award ceremony will take place on December 3, 2020.
