The first day of TLDCON 2021 continued with the session titled, “Marketing in the domain industry,” moderated by Maria Kolesnikova, Chief Analyst at the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ. She invited experts to share best practices and initiatives related to the promotion of national domain zones and discuss what sets the domain industry apart from other sectors in terms of marketing.
“This session includes representatives from both national registries and registrars, which will give us a comprehensive overview of marketing objectives and opportunities for the domain industry,” she said.
Lianna Galstyan from ISOC.AM spoke about the events and competitions organized to mark the fifth anniversary of .հայ, Armenia’s IDN domain. She said that the .հայ registry decided to give all schools in Armenia, as well as those operated by the Armenian diaspora abroad free domain names within the .հայ TLD.
Maria Kolesnikova presented initiatives by the Coordination Center to promote .RU and .РФ ccTLDs, and also talked about education and corporate social responsibility projects by the Coordination Center: a project to promote Cyrillic domains and email services, known by its Cyrillic domain name Поддерживаю.РФ, and Domain Patrol. Ms. Kolesnikova said that over the past three years the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ has marked three anniversaries: the .RU domain turned 25 years in 2019, the .РФ domain celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2020, and in 2021 it was the Coordination Center’s turn to mark its 20th anniversary. She also talked about the events devoted to these celebrations.
Andrei Kuzmichyov presented RU-CENTER’s initiatives to promote Russian domain zones and noted that new gTLDs should not be viewed as competitors for ccTLDs. “Despite all the marketing, promotions and discounts for new gTLDs, .RU and .РФ account for between 65 to 70 percent of registrations handled by RU-CENTER,” he pointed out.
Vadim Laptyonok from hoster.by discussed the latest developments in the Belarusian domain market, how its registry operates in crisis mode and crisis communications. Murad Ibragimov from UZINFOCOM focused on marketing campaigns within the .UZ domain zone in his remarks.
During this session, speakers also talked at length about universal acceptance and efforts to promote internationalized domain zones. A number of national IDN registries joined the conversation. Lianna Galstyan noted that the possibility of using native languages is a major factor in promoting IDN domains. Vadim Laptyonok talked about how the .БЕЛ domain is used for advertising purposes.
The first day of TLDCON 2021 ended with a session on the secondary domain market, during which participants discussed domain valuation methods, reviewed statistics for the secondary domain market and trends in this segment. Andrei Savelyev from Домены.РФ and Georgy Georgiyevsky from the Coordination Center moderated this session.
Svetlana Lobanova, Project Manager at the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, discussed her experience in using the Domain Valuation Methodology for second-level TLDs .RU and .РФ on the secondary market. It was developed in 2020 by Euroexpert for the Coordination Center and offers a set of methods and algorithms for valuating domain names on the secondary market. She also talked about methods for valuating domain names as intangible assets.
“Pricing on the secondary market remains opaque for most users, which led us to the conclusion that it is time that we develop a method that can pave the way for the development of domain valuation standards in the future. This would not only make the secondary market more transparent and civilized, but would also make it possible to use domain valuation standards in due diligence procedures or to assess damages in domain disputes,” she pointed out.
Igor Feoktistov presented statistics from REG.RU, a domain market, and said that sales on the secondary market increased by 130 percent over the past three years, with .RU and .РФ remaining the top choices. In 2021, they accounted for 94 percent of sales. RU-СENTER’s Marina Brik confirmed the positive momentum on the secondary market, and claimed that over the past two years prices increased by an average of 20 percent, and are now in the range of 27,000 to 30,000 rubles per domain name.
Szilard Foldhazi from Catch.club/NameSilo LLC talked about the secondary market for IDN domains, while Andrei Savelyev proposed bringing all the Russian domain operators together to create a single platform for valuating and selling domain names.
TLDCON 2021 will continue through tomorrow. Tune in for the live stream at tldcon.ru or on the Coordination Center’s YouTube channel.
