On April 7, 2024, the Russian country code top level domain .RU marks its anniversary: 30 years ago, an entry about Russia’s domain was added to the IANA database, and at that moment, its development began.
Today, .RU is among the largest domains in the world: it has over 5.5 million domain names registered. It ranks fifth among all ccTLDs, with about 150,000 new domain names registered in it every month. In 2023, .RU grew by 10.3 percent and became the undisputed growth leader among all country code domains.
In .RU, 96.5 percent of domains are delegated, and 96 percent are actively used; 36.4 percent of domains are older than five years, and 32 percent are younger than one year. Seventy-four percent of domain names in .RU are registered by individuals.
Over the last five years, the number of domain names registered by Russians has grown: back in 2019, when .RU marked its 25th anniversary, 83 percent were registered by Russian citizens, but in April 2022, Russians administered 85 percent of domains in .RU, with the leading regions being Moscow (26.2 percent), the Moscow Region (9.5 percent), St. Petersburg (7.3 percent), Krasnodar Territory (3.1 percent) and Sverdlovsk Region (2.1 percent).
Today, many Russian companies and projects choose .RU instead of foreign domain zones: this goes both to new projects and those switching from other domain zones, primarily from the .COM zone. This is not just a matter of difficulties with paying for international domains from Western registrars: the .RU zone is safer for users today. The Coordination Center and competent organizations are actively fighting phishing and blocking fraudulent resources faster than anyone else in the world.
For more than 20 years, since 2002, domain names for end users have been registered by accredited registrars. The first registrar was RU-CENTER: today, it is one of Russia’s largest registrars and part of the Runity group. In total, 131 registrars in 12 Russian cities are engaged in registering domain names in .RU and .РФ.
“.RU marks its 30th anniversary being in an active growth phase: many projects are returning to the ccTLDs, redirecting their development to the domestic Russian market, and many small and medium-sized businesses are launching new projects. We are successfully handling cybersecurity and import substitution challenges by developing infrastructure and investing a lot of resources in improving Russia’s digital literacy and ensuring the safety of the Russian domain space. Our efforts are yielding results: the .RU domain is growing faster than the global internet, and by the anniversary it has surpassed a new milestone of 5.5 million domain names. The trend for growth and development will continue: there are all the conditions for this. And we are happy to congratulate everyone involved in the development of both the .RU domain and the entire Runet on their anniversary and invite everyone to share this celebration with us,” said Andrey Vorobyev, director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ.
“.RU is something the nation can rightfully be proud of, and this is not just some change in recent years. From its very launch, the Russian internet segment has been creative, daring and international trend-setting. It was Russian specialists who were the first to try new plugins, set sky-high design standards over and over again, and were behind the miracle of domestic fintech. Now the emergence of user-friendly tools for creating websites has greatly reduced the barrier to entry into online business, and this is a timely response to the dynamically developing SME segment’s request for digitalization and “voice” on the internet. And I believe that expanding opportunities to launch something will only multiply our achievements: as companies grow, they will move from business card sites to more complex and interesting forms, creating new pages in the history of the Runet,” Head of Runity Andrey Kuzmichev said.
An entire series of anniversary events has been prepared to mark .RU’s anniversary, and they will take place throughout the entire year 2024. For example, on April 7, the anniversary day, a thematic Day of the Runet will be held at the International RUSSIA EXPO Exhibition and Forum at VDNKh, which will be attended by representatives of the largest Russian companies: they will deliver lectures and workshops there. In addition, participants in the Day of the Runet will be able to enjoy quizzes, concerts, and the presentation of the 30 Years of the Runet online encyclopedia among other entertaining events.
On April 9-10. Moscow will host the Russian Internet Governance Forum (RIGF 2024), where the 30th anniversary of the .RU domain will also be discussed. And on April 23-26, everyone is invited to the Communications 2024 exhibition, where visitors will be able to learn about the history and development of the .RU domain at the Coordination Center stand, participate in competitions and quizzes, and receive memorable prizes and gifts.
About the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ
The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ performs the functions of a national registry and has the authority to develop rules for registering domain names in the .RU and .РФ domains, accrediting registrars, and researching promising projects related to the development of Russian top-level domains.
The Coordination Center’s mission is to ensure the development of the internet in Russia in the interests of the national and global internet communities. The center’s websites are cctld.ru and кц.рф
