On May 24, the XXVII Russian Internet Forum (RIF 2023) opened in the Moscow region. The forum annually becomes a platform for communication and exchange of experience for many representatives of various sectors of the digital economy. The forum includes an exhibition of domestic software, a festival of high technologies, thematic round tables and meetings with business representatives in various formats. The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ once again became the organizational partner of the forum.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin sent an official greeting to the RIF 2023 participants. He noted Russia's leading position in terms of the number of Internet users, the availability of home and mobile Internet, digital transformation and the use of information technologies in the public sector, and success in import substitution of industrial and system-wide software. Mishustin recalled measures to support the IT industry and wished the participants "productive work, interesting discussions, and new discoveries."
During the discussion panel "Building Technological Leadership", Karen Kazaryan, Chief Analyst at ANO Tsifrovaya ekonomika, said that in 2022 the Internet infrastructure segment grew by 47% and amounted to 303.3 billion rubles. In general, Runet grew in 2022 by 29% compared to 2021. According to Sergei Grebennikov, director of the RAEC, a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, the contribution of the Internet economy to the Russian economy in 2022 amounted to 12.2 trillion rubles.
Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ Andrey Vorobyev noted that the .RU was subjected to unprecedented sanctions pressure during 2022, including the refusal of foreign registrars to support domain names, and the inability for foreign users to pay for domain renewals due to banking sanctions. Therefore, according to the results of the year, there was a decrease in the number of domains in the .RU zone, which was offset by an increase in the Cyrillic domain .РФ.
“Now Russian registrars are finding solutions to continue interacting with foreign users. It should be noted that this situation contributed to the growth of interest in the creation of websites for local projects in the .RU and .РФ zones. For example, many museums and art projects only sell tickets online. And our forecast for 2023 is optimistic – 700,000 domains in the .РФ and 5 million in the .RU. In addition, due to the relocation of IT companies, there is an increased interest of the Middle East and Central Asian businesses in Russian domains, and here we see a serious potential for the growth of the domain industry,” he said.
After the opening and the plenary session, there was a round table “There Are Many Peoples - The Motherland Is One. Runet As A Unifying Force Of Modern Russia”, organized by the ANO “Tsifrovaya ekonomika” and the all-Russian project “There Are Many Peoples – One Motherland”. The participants discussed the impact of Runet on the mass consciousness of modern Russian society, talked about new Internet projects aimed at increasing the level of patriotism and loyalty in society, considered educational and social technologies in Runet and the formation of youth content in the field of creative industries. During the discussion, the speakers also raised questions about how Russian youth perceive the Runet today and how it has transformed over the past 30 years.
Andrey Vorobyev also addressed the section. He spoke about modern ways of communication with young people. As an example, he cited the youth projects of the Coordinating Center, spoke about the work of the Youth Council of the Center and the importance of involving young people in the processes of Internet Governance.
“If you try to describe in one word the most important factor in communicating with young people, it will be the word “trust”. If you speak with the younger generation in their language and be on the same wavelength with them, it becomes much easier to find the right approach to attracting new talents,” Andrey Vorobyev said.
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