The 18th awards ceremony for the Runet Prize was held at the Khudozhestvenny movie theater on December 7.
The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, a traditional partner of the Runet Prize, has established a special category For the Development of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses for Russian IT companies and platforms which support SMEs, media outlets and major banks’ projects. This year, the prize in the special category has been awarded to three of the 10 shortlisted candidates.
They are:
- Smallbusiness.ru, an open information resource for small businesses;
- The MTS project Znaem Lichno (We Know Personally); and
- VTB Bank’s Internet Banking project.
The prizes were presented by Coordination Center Director Andrey Vorobyev and Chair of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications Alexander Khinshtein.
“I am delighted to present the prize for SME development. I would also like to make special mention of our IT businesses. We have proposed adding a new day to the professional holidays calendar, IT Businesses Day, to mark their contribution to the development of the digital environment,” Khinshtein pointed out.
Andrey Vorobyev noted that SME support is a priority area of development for the state and the IT industry represented by major players on the Russian market.
“The Russian business community is noted for mutual support: nearly all players are ready to lend a hand and provide the necessary assistance to their colleagues in the sector. This is of huge importance in the current period, which is difficult for all but especially for business. The IT businesses are the driving force of development. Thanks to them, the sector is not marking time but is moving forward, turning out new ideas and startups, and, of course, training valuable IT professionals,” Vorobyev noted.
The Runet Prize is an annual national prize that recognizes contributions to the development of the Russian segment of the internet by IT companies, state-owned, private and public organizations, media outlets, startup businesses and individual projects. This year the prize was awarded in nine main and four special categories. The winners of the popular vote have been announced in three categories: Who, What and Where. The main innovation of the 2021 contest was the use of artificial intelligence to choose one winner in each category. The Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC) has reported that 1,097 applications were submitted for the contest and 54 of the candidates received the prize.
According to a study by the Coordination Center titled “.RU and .РФ Domains for Russian SMEs: Barriers and Opportunities,” these country-code domains have been a top choice for over 80 percent of Russian small businesses, and most of them (89 percent) are happy with their choice.
Nearly 90 percent of medium-sized businesses are using .RU or .РФ domains, and 90 percent of them say that using these domains makes promoting a website on the Russian internet easier and more effective.
