The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ has released the findings of its annual assessment of the support for Cyrillic email addresses among the most popular Russian online resources. This research, carried out by the Поддерживаю.РФ project, aims to evaluate the readiness of prominent websites to process email addresses containing Russian alphabet characters, either in the local part (before the @ symbol) or in the domain name (after the @ symbol).
In 2024, the study analyzed 300 websites commonly accessed by Russian internet users via desktop and mobile devices. The selection of these resources was based on data from Mediascope's Cross Web project. At the time of testing, 148 sites featured one or more user interaction forms that required email address input (such as registration forms, feedback forms, and news subscription forms). These forms were tested for their capability to accept Cyrillic email addresses without errors (acceptance) and to ensure the successful receipt of emails in the test mailboxes (confirmation).
The study's results revealed the following levels of acceptance for fully or partially Cyrillic email addresses:
- 31 percent of the platforms accept email addresses with Latin characters in the local part and a Cyrillic domain name (e.g., ascii@юникод.юникод).
- 22 percent accept email addresses with a Cyrillic local part and a Latin domain name (e.g., юникод@ascii.ascii).
- 18 percent of the sites are capable of accepting fully Cyrillic email addresses (e.g., юникод@юникод.юникод).
Regarding the confirmation of such email addresses:
- 20 percent of the platforms successfully send emails to addresses with Latin in the local part and a Cyrillic domain (ascii@юникод.юникод).
- 3 percent successfully send emails to addresses with a Cyrillic local part and a Latin domain (юникод@ascii.ascii).
- Another 3 percent function correctly with all types of Cyrillic email addresses, successfully accepting and sending emails to fully Cyrillic addresses (юникод@юникод.юникод).
Compared to the 2023 survey data, there is an observable increase in the acceptance rates for all types of Cyrillic email addresses: юникод@ascii.ascii by 7 percent, ascii@юникод.юникод by 15 percent, and юникод@юникод.юникод by 4 percent. The confirmation rate for Cyrillic email addresses юникод@ascii.ascii and юникод@юникод.юникод increased by 33 percent, while ascii@юникод.юникод experienced a decline of 12 percent.
Maria Kolesnikova, head of the Поддерживаю.РФ project, remarked,
"This marks our second year conducting the study, and we observe a gradual increase in the number of sites that effectively support Cyrillic email. Nevertheless, the owners and developers of more than half of the sites still overlook the implementation of support for Cyrillic domain names and email addresses. These sites fail to comply with modern standards for internationalized internet identifiers, including those registered within the Russian national domain zone, and consequently, they do not fully cater to users who prefer to navigate the internet in their native language."
